GEC17 Science, Technology, and

Society

CHAPTER 3
THE INFORMATION
AGE
CHAPTER OUTLINE
• The Pre-Gutenberg World
• The Gutenberg World
• The Post-Gutenberg World
• Information Age
• Social Media and Its Impact on Society
 INTRODUCTION
• Currently, there is a massive increase in social media usage, which has
accelerated the spread of information.
• Social media has evolved into a powerful tool for sharing information.
• Considering the current challenging situation caused by the COVID 19
pandemic, where face-to-face interaction is limited, social media ensures
that everyone has easy access to information.
• It refers to the so-called "Information Age," where people access and
control information that impacts practically every area of modern life.
• The information age is the modern era in which knowledge has become a
commodity.
LEARNING OUTCOMES

After going through this module, you must be able to:

• explore an issue on the accuracy of the information in social media;
• familiarize the pre-Gutenberg World, Gutenberg Revolution, and post-
Gutenberg world;
• illustrate how social media and the information age affected our society; and
• explore an issue on the accuracy of the information in social media.
The illiterate of the 21 century will not be those who cannot read and write,
st

but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.

AlvinToffler, American Futurist,

Writer of the Future shock and the Third wave 1970

 THE PRE-GUTENBERG WORLD:

During this time, books were produced by hand and transcribed using clay,
papyrus wax, and parchment. The government chooses the people to be given the
education to read. Thus education is selected for the few because of the fear of
mass communication influence that will hinder their ruling. The primary method
of transmitting information is through "word-of-mouth" channels. The first
printing press was built in 1440 through Johannes Gutenberg that prompted the
start of mass communication. But the spread of mass communication slowly
progressed, that it took hundreds of years.
 THE GUTENBERG REVOLUTION

"The printing press was an important step towards the democratization of knowledge."
Eisenstein, 1969
Researchers described the Gutenberg Revolution as a term to express the democratizing
effects of the invention of the printing press on society. Worldwide changes had taken place
because of the creation of the printing press. Democracy occurred and impacted the
community, allowing people to express what they had not done before. However,
information distribution during this time is expensive and only afforded to the few, but this
issue was addressed through the institutionalized and mediated distribution of information.
 THE POST-GUTENBERG WORLD

The Post-Gutenberg world is described as the social media revolution. In

this era, mass communication distribution costs nothing because everyone has
the tools (Slideshare.net). Let us trace and describe the development of
disseminating information as shown in the timeline below. It will help us
appreciate the way the data is acquired and distributed today.
INFORMATION DISSEMINATION
DEVELOPMENT TIMELINE
 In the early times of the internet, it still follows Gutenberg's Principle because money and time are required
for internet accessibility and information dissemination. The greater access to information during this time is still
yet to be fulfilled. However, over time the development of the internet changes people's way of communicating
with the world. It created significant expansions like the possibility of uploading and downloading various media
forms such as images, videos, and audios through internet access and the ease of dissemination and publication of
information brought about by the different tools. Thus, every individual and potential individual can now have the
information at hand, which describes the Post-Gutenberg Principle or Social Information Principle (Stacy, 2008).
Belonging to society, giving and receiving precautions and instructions, providing comfort and
encouragement, and improving everyday ways and means served as the drive for man to communicate and
continuously exchange information. In the early times, distance, time, and location challenge communication
slowing the process of reaching information to the receiving end. Yet, people communicated the data using various
signals like fire, flags, drums, and writings on clay or stone tablets. Animals like horses and birds were also used
as a means to deliver information. But this process is not as easy as one thinks it would be. However, the
discovery and invention of communication and information technology facilitated a fast, easy and convenient
method of communication. The historical periods of the Information Technology Revolution are presented below.
(Washington, DC. Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense (OASD), Command & Control Research Program
(CCRP), 1997).
1. THE FIRST MODERN INFORMATION
REVOLUTION
• Began in the mid-19th century
• Includes telegraph, telephone, and radio
• The mentioned inventions improve peoples' lives, allowing more accessible
communications in businesses, government, military, and foreign policy
establishments.
2. THE SECOND MODERN REVOLUTION
Followed the first modern information revolution
• Extended until the mid-20th century
• Includes television, early generation computers, and satellites
• The mentioned inventions greatly improved communication and have bypassed
even further distances in a faster time.
• It benefits industrial and governmental affairs by saving money which at first
spent on communication and exchange of information.

Television First Generation Personal Computer Satellite

Pixy.org Quora.com Pixabay.com
3. THE THIRD MODERN INFORMATION
REVOLUTION
• Began in the 1980s and has surpassed the two other revolutions
• This is our time called the "Knowledge Revolution"
• Includes advanced information technologies
• It has a remarkable impact on politics, economics, sociology, knowledge
creation, and distribution culture.

Web design & Advanced Observation Next Generation

Web images Tower Reef Monitoring
Pixabay.com aims.gov.au aims.gov.au
 BENEFITS OF THIS INFORMATION AGE

Some of the benefits that society gets in this information age are the following:
1. It allows more significant savings of money usually spent to ensure the communication has reached
the receiving end.
2. It allows for more effective and efficient communication.
3. It allows easy production and distribution of goods from producers to wholesalers, retailers, and
consumers.
4. It improves the national economy as it flourished the businesses of the business sectors.
5. It improves the ways of handling political affairs at the national and international levels.

6. It made military affairs easy by providing adequate and timely communication, thus preventing the
occurrence of supposed to be wars, and
7. It makes the world closer by making family members and friends in distant places reachable with
just one click.
 SOCIAL MEDIA AND ITS IMPACT TO THE
SOCIETY

The use of social media has been noted as the most popular online activity.
The year 2020 showed an estimated 3.6 billion people using social media
worldwide, and this number was projected to increase to almost 4.41 billion in
2025. As shown below, the
Philippines' most used social media platforms among internet users in the
3rd quarter of 2019 are Facebook, YouTube, and FB messenger (Sanchez,
2020). 
 Source: Sanchez (2020). Philippines: Number of internet users 2015 -
2020.https://www.statista.com/statistics/221179/internet-users-philippines/
HOW DO SOCIAL
MEDIA CHANGE
THE WORLD?
A globally recognized blogger, speaker,
educator, consultant, and author Mark W.
Schaefer (2016), described how social media
changed the world. According to him, social
media changed the world in extraordinary
ways.

Mark W. Schaefer
Intervistato.com
1. It makes people less individualistic, and traditional groups are more reinforced.
2. It serves as an essential catalyst in education, including informal learning.
3. Various messages around the world can be shared through selfies.
4. Online equality and offline equality are different.
5. It's the people who utilize social media, not the company, that defines social media function.
6. It is perceived as conservative or traditionalist.
7. Posted photos and the use of emoji in social media have shifted human communication.
8. It makes the world less homogenous.
9. Social media promote personal commerce.
10. Can create group communications.
11. It becomes "online homes" to some people.
12. It profoundly affects gender relations.
13. It makes human conversations and relationships polymedia.
14. Memes in social media have become the moral police that has set normal behavior standards among the
general public.

15. Privacy is threatened except for those who do not use it.
 SOME ISSUES OF USING SOCIAL MEDIA
Social media have both positive and negative impacts on society. Most of the positive effects of social media have
already been mentioned. However, the use of social media showed associated risks or issues. From one of the articles
of effectiviology.com., the dangers or problems associated with the use of social media include the following:
1. General issues such as exposure to misinformation, violation of one's privacy, and political polarization.
2. Issues in specific situations like cyberbullying and stalking.
3. Interferes important obligations like schoolwork that may affect the grades of students.
4. Social media addiction.
5. Health risks include anxiety, stress, depression, emotional exhaustion, loneliness, envy, low self-esteem, low-
quality sleep, and health problems.
The use of social media is inevitable, for it provides lots of benefits. Today, it doesn't appear easy to live a day
without social media. But it is also essential to be aware of the social and ethical issues involved. Awareness of its
benefits and potential risks will guide everyone on what decisions may affect this digital world.
 PRIVACY AND SOCIAL MEDIA POLICY IN
THE PHILIPPINES

• The Philippines has no direct and specific policy regarding social media. However, laws
and jurisprudence generally deal with privacy concerning social media, stipulated in the
Constitution, Revised Penal Code, Rules of Court, and Civil Code (Brutas, 2015). The
general laws related to privacy and social media in the Philippines, as cited by Brutas
(2015), include:
1. The 1987 Constitution – contains provisions about the right to privacy under the Bill of Rights, which includes the Right
against unreasonable searches and seizures and the Right to privacy of communication and correspondence.
2. The Civil Code of the Philippines, Chapter 2 Article 26 under Human Relations. "Every person shall respect the dignity,
personality, privacy, and peace of mind of his neighbors and other persons."
3. The Anti-Photo and Video Voyeurism Act of 2009 recognizes invasion of privacy as a criminal offense. It penalizes those
who take photo or video coverage of a person or group of persons performing sexual act or any similar activity or of
capturing an image of private area of a person(s) without the latter's consent, under circumstances in which such person(s)
has/have reasonable expectation of privacy.
4. Human Security Act of 2007 - enacted to counter and manage terrorism in the Philippines. Human Security Act, Section 17-
defines terrorism as one that "causes widespread and extraordinary fear and panic among the populace. 
5. Data Privacy Act of 2012 states that an act is protecting individual personal information and communications systems in the
government and the private sector. It mandates the public and private institutions to protect and preserve the integrity and
confidentiality of all personal data they might gather, including the processing of personal information and sensitive personal
information. 
6. The Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012 addressed crimes committed in cyberspace and ICT use, such as Illegal access
(hacking), data interference, device misuse, computer fraud, cybersex, and spam. The law reaffirms existing laws against a.)
child pornography, an offense under RA 9779 (the Anti-Child Pornography Act of 2009) and 2.) Under Section 355 of the
Philippines' Revised Penal Code, Libel, an offense includes committing this offense through a computer system.
7. Jurisprudences – the course of court decision decided by the Philippine Supreme Court that deals with privacy concerning
social media like the case of St. Theresa's College in Cebu where concerned students were prevented from participating in
the Graduation Exercise in March 2012 because of their provocative posts in social media. The court decision of this case
was based on the violations that these students committed against the school's Code of Conduct. Although the parents of the
concerned filed a lawsuit against the school over the invasion of students' privacy, the Philippine Supreme Court ruled in
favor of the school, stating that nothing is ever private in Facebook. The court ruled that "St. Theresa College did not violate
the minor's privacy rights" and thus dismissed the parents' petition.
 EVALUATING A WEB SITE
Concerning the issue of misinformation from internet sources, consumers of
information must have a way of distinguishing sources that provide reliable and
accurate information. Students and professionals commonly used books and e-books,
scholarly journals, and proceedings to source scientific knowledge in the academe. In
today's generation, the internet provides vast information where anyone can search
information anytime and anywhere so as long as there is an internet connection.
However, the accuracy and reliability of information or content should also be given
importance.
The internet facilitates the easy finding of information for various purposes such
as teaching, research, knowledge acquisition, and more. However, with the vast
information available on the internet, one must be skillful in evaluating a website that
provides accurate, valid, credible, and reliable information or content. This is because
anyone can post or make a piece of information available on the web. Choosing the
right website to
source the info helps prevent the spread of false information or fake news, confusing
communication can be avoided, and the standard of one's work will be lifted.
Web Site Evaluation Process retrieved from https://courses.lumenlearning.com/engcomp1-
wmopen/chapter/text-evaluating-websites-not-sure-if-necessary/
 THANK YOU
GOD BLESS YOU