TWC Week 5

TWC Week 5

This week's lecture was focused on telecommunications, the internet, mass media with discussions on how new technologies in this aspect like interactive technologies, social networking etc, have shaped our world. Its definitely a universal view that the advancement in technology in these areas have made our world much smaller.

What caught my attention was the dark side that came along with such advancements and inventions. With more of the world's population being heavily dependent on technology for our daily lives, the internet and telecommunications technology has also become some sort of Achilles heel for us. Issues like identity theft, hacking and many instances of cyber crime have inevitably popped into our lives, taking advantage of our reliance on such technologies. This topic was also mentioned in Daniel's presentation, where the grim scenario of the internet failing on us was discussed. While we would definitely survive such a situation, the world would invariably slow down, as everyday chores that rely on the internet that we take for granted like bank transactions and checking of emails would no longer be possible.

The recent case of the NSA's spying on USA's own citizens as well as abroad is an example of the controversies that arises from the advancement of communication technology. Originally created to detect terrorist activity after the September 11 attacks by filtering internet browsing history, emails and phone calls, many Americans are now turning against the government after whistleblowers exposed its existence and due to the general perception that such measures are no longer needed against terrorism.

There were some ideas that I brought away from the lecture. ICT technology will only continue to advance as shown in the Web 1.0-2.0-3.0 evolution. As such, the opportunities that one can misuse such technology will only increase as well. As such, time needs to be devoted to developing safeguards to minimise the risks of that occurring. The evolution of such technology will only make us more and more reliant on it, and as such, the consequences will be severe if such technology should ever fail on us one day. As such, backups for such a scenario as Daniel presented, should be thought of.

To conclude, I rate the lesson a 9/10, but I wish that some time could be devoted to discussing safeguarding measures government or bodies can impose on such new emerging technologies to lower the chances of being misused.