ICT has affected our society so much that in this day and age, there are aspect of ICT in every kind of employment from corporate law firms to local florists, ICT is everywhere. I will be looking at the way ICT has affected the how people communicate in their working lives; how it is used to assist employees; How it has improved flexibility and how ICT has affected freedom and self-reliance.
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Firstly, ICT has affected how people are communicating now. In the past when technologies hadn't been founded, people had to communicate through letters that had to be sent by travelling through people power. However, due to the innovation of ICT, people are now able to communicate from any points in the world as well as being able to view video reception of the person or people that they are contacting. In the working field, people are using the most sophisticated technologies such as switchboards and mobile phones. Another innovation is E-mail and it is being frequently used by businesses as a way of contacting and communicating with the internal staff. This shows that ICT has positively impacted the way people are passing massages from the smallest note to the most discrete files. People are now able to communicate from all over the world through video links and Cyber worlds. This is known as computer conferencing; This allows the users to communicate and visually see the person or people that they are communicating with. They will also be able to transfer files and messages directly to the recipient(s). This shows The positive affect that ICT has had on the society as well as the working styles of businesses, it has enabled people to have much more ease on how they choose to communicate internally and externally within their businesses. Even to communicate with the people across the room employees and other staff members are able to send sort E-mails. This may become a problem for some people, as it may cause them to become quite reliant on these technologies, therefore becoming very lazy. This is a disadvantage to society as it poses a lot of questions about the levels of effort that employees are actually putting into their work. People are now able to communicate through new android devices such as the iphone, this shows that people are now able to communicate from anywhere and are now able to pick and choose the means of communication that they prefer the most. For example, the micro-blogging site Twitter enable the users to list their co-workers est. This shows how positively ICT has affected the way people can communicate and has shown how it has developed and is still developing through computer conferences and chat rooms. 
Secondly, ICT has also affected employees in terms of assistance. For example, EPOS electronic point of sales which has allowed the employee to have access to a computerised piece of machinery which is directly linked to a stock database and/or a live stock database which will assist them in looking up the item that they have scanned and then refreshing the stock list. This will then allow for an automatic stock update signal or an automatic order for the stock; This system is very automated and is extremely quick and efficient to use. Another payment system is EFTPOS which means the Electronic funds transfer at point of sale. This is the system that allows debit and credit cards to be used in order to pay for goods and services. This is extremely helpful or the employee as this system automatically funds automatically from the customers account to the seller's account. This shows the level of assistance that is gained by the employees and is effectively impacting the businesses as they are able to take on more transactions. Even in other types of markets such as mechanics, the employees are able to use ICT in the form of computerised analysis equipment in order to diagnose the problems with the customers vehicles. This is a major advance in technology and affects our society as it enables us to use ICT in new and exiting ways. 
Working styles, have been made more flexible by ICT as there are many alternatives for pen and paper. The first alternative is E-mailing; E-mailing is very straight forward and easy to use and the is no need to waste time in mailing and spending extra money on stamps and delivery fees. The second alternative is that work can be done anywhere at any time using devices such as laptops and android phone devices which can receive broadband connection. This is a dramatic change in our society today because we are now able to multi task while going about our everyday tasks and our working lives. This has also had a positive affect on the economy as it has allowed businesses to innovate such technologies and then sell them for a tidy profit; Therefore, resulting in a positive economic outlook. In personal experience, I have found that it has been very flexible to continue my work on several different devices that only need a broadband connection if I want to use the internet. I am also able to easily send various email and other multimedia products without having to go through numerous procedures and waste time and energy in organising information. I have also found that the negative aspect is that I have become quite reliant on ICT which sometimes leads to loss of data as a result of not having backed up information. As an example of flexibility caused by ICT, satellite navigation systems have made travelling a more flexible work style. The GPS signal locates the users location and the system software then gives direction on which way to turn. We have already established that we have become very reliant on technology, but what would happen if the technology was incorrect of at fault? Here is a link to a story published by the guardian newspaper about the dangers of faulty GPS software. The story focuses on how GPS software in the satellite navigation system lead a man to his death as he drove straight into a reservoir. This highlights the disadvantage to ICT as we may incur faults, which we should be prepared for.
Finally, the affect that ICT has had on employees self-reliance and freedom has been very expansive. Staff are now able to use different devices to enable them to undertake their tasks. For example, teachers have the freedom to put text books to one side and use resources from the internet to teach pupils. This is a positive impact that ICT has had on our society as it has allowed people to experiment with different techniques which will then result in pupils achieving much better results and being able to think for themselves. This is the right state of mind that is needed to innovate future technologies and therefore, improve business in general and the end product of a positive economy. In my personal experience, I have found that when teachers have made the lessons more interactive with the use of ICT, I have been able to take in more information and therefore, achieve better results. The only negative aspect is that The information cannot always be reliable and cannot always be taken as it is as present. An example of this is Wikipedia on the internet; The free encyclopaedia can be edited by anyone. Therefore, you should always make sure that the information you obtain from the internet is researched and is correct. However, other aspects of ICT have allowed teachers to have the freedom to have options of how to teach; For example, an interactive whiteboard is a new innovation which allows the user to have a large screen that can be written on via a interactive pen that is connected to the whiteboard. This is a very positive aspect and also assists the employees to achieve the most from the lessons that they provide.
This story is of relevance as it is showing a direct change in working styles through ICT.
This is a great example of what can go wrong connected with working styles if there is a loss of equipment which is all relating to ICT.
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