PRESENT DAY SOCIETY AND THE INFORMATION REVOLUTION: gains and losses

Abstract

The text discusses the infl uence of the information revolution on today’s society. The occurrence of this phenomenon is due, in part, to technological innovations brought by the demands of diverse paradigms that the world has been following. This arises from the fact that the capitalist economic model, driven by a unilateral progress which concentrates income and power, has sped up the hands of the clock. Now, time is money and people are in a hurry. This has led to the emergence of new ways of generating and transmitting information, transforming the industrial economy into a service economy and giving more weight to knowledge. In this scenario, the computer plays a predominant role, since using this tool, half of the work force is involved in the creation, handling and use of information. This prompts the refl ection: how can we keep up with the advances and the associated risks that this new paradigm brings? Steps must be taken to ensure that many in the world, including in Brazil, who have no means of fi nancing high cost technological research, do not suffer greater problems as a result of this process, from the perspective of today’s ‘information’ society.