In the last decade or so there have been plenty of innovations pertaining to information technology and social media that has taken place. This has brought in a tremendous amount of change in the society and the quality of life. The chapter explores the various aspect of change that has happened due to information technology and social media in a democratic setup. The chapter highlights how social change has occurred due to innovation in information technology and social media. This chapter explores how information technology and social media have supported the various elements of social change which have improved social wellbeing and quality of life such as education, healthcare, personal safety, transport, predictive tool, and the economics around social change.
TopIntroduction
Innovation is generating, accepting, and implementing fresh thoughts, procedures, goods or services. (Thompson’s, 1965). Innovation in information technology includes using technology in new ways to build a more effective organization and enhance alignment between technology projects and company objectives. Innovation in Information Technology can happen in many forms such as – developing new applications that open new markets, to convert various business processes to automated IT functions to reduce operating costs, to create systems which enhance better manageability. The need for innovation, flexibility, and adaptability has led to important modifications in the demands of the information system, especially those hosting infrastructures for information technology. (Volonino, Robinson and Watson, 1992). The fast development of information technology has created s system which is similar to that of the nervous system in human beings. Technology is changing society by altering the environment we are adapting to. This shift is generally in the material setting, customs and social institutions are often modified by the adjustment we make to the modifications (Ogburn, 1947).
Any technological change that is sufficiently large will result in some other social change. (Cohen, 1968). Social change is the modification of social structure processes, defined by modifications in cultural symbols, behavioural laws, social organisations or value systems. (Wilterdink, & Form, 2014). A significant volume of analytical and empirically studies on information technology and social change has been conducted which a strong linkage between them. (Kling, 2000).
In democracies, information technology has created new opportunities for the citizens and this has boosted the economy in a positive way but along with it has also brought threats such as fraud or information technology security risks, invasion of privacy and criminal conduct, technical issues such as viruses, and social and psychological issues such as depression and addiction. (Sjöberg, & Fromm, 2001). Information technology has dramatically increased over the past few years and so has the information security risks (Kumar & Bhardwaj, 2018). Information security infringement have a higher degree of economic impact. (Nofer, et. al., 2014). It has been noted that a broad area research on the development of the state-of-the-art technical resources to monitor and protect vital information resources has been done, and it is imperative to highlight that though technology has evolved around it but it may not be enough to protect and safeguard the same. (Siponen et al., 2008).
Another very important aspect about a properly functioning democracy is that it provides access to information. (Harrison and Sayogo, 2014). Hence any threat or risk of such information or data would lead to an attempt to disrupt the democratic functioning. It becomes very imperative to have data privacy policies and security in place to keep a check.