Opportunity At Home And Information Technology

There is a current revolution in information technology that is having an increasingly visible effect on the average American. These effects have been both positive and negative, but they have not yet been measured in a concrete sociological or psychological format. While information technology has done wonderful things for society, such as providing an increase in opportunity at home, there are certainly a few downsides. The effects of information technology are shaping social lives and behaviors in ways that we never predicted they would.

Developments in information technology have spurned many questions into the future of our society. These developments affect not only how people work, but where they work, how much they work, or with whom they interact face-to-face or electronically. Will future workers continue to share physical proximity with their colleagues, or work largely alone wedded to digital devices with occasional electronic mail or voice communication? What will these changes mean for social trust and social life beyond the family? Will the growing trend of working at home with the aid of IT help strengthen the family or add to the intrusion of the workplace into the home? Will it reduce the hours people work, or increase them by infusing work into every sphere of life, devouring leisure time and family life? And how will the Internet affect the role and use of the traditional media? Continue