Ethical Considerations Draft

SOCIETAL IMPACTS OF E-BOOK TECHNOLOGY 9

Societal Impacts of E-books Technology

Lakisha Riddick

DeVry University

January 28, 2017

Table of Contents 2

Introduction 3

History of E-Book 3

Societal Impact of the E-book Technology 4

Social 4

Economical 6

Political 7

Cultural 7

Environmental 7

The Impact of E-book Technology on Humanity 8

Conclusion 8

References 9

There are new things that are invented on everyday basis. Every field of study have experts that ensures that they develop what is already existing to ensure that such changes fits the changing society. There is also technological advancement that has occurred in the education sector that is worth noting. That technological development is the invention of the E-book. As explained in the previous stages of the project E-book is a technological system that enables readers among other people access books online without necessarily acquiring the hardcopy (PricewaterhouseCoopers, 2010). The invention of E-book in the field of technology has brought with it various influence on the society. This part of the project is to do an analysis of the various impacts that this particular technology has brought to the society. This will be done taking into consideration the various aspects of society such as social, economic, political and environmental among others.

Internet was created in 1973, it is best to start tracing the history of E-books from when internet was created. However, it will be important to note that there are elements of E-books as from 1971 through the Gutenberg project which was aimed to introduce a digital library (Bogue, 2002). Internet did not replace the other forms of communication such as print media, televisions and radios among others. What internet did was to create its space as a medium of communication. As time passed internet started to be use as a business medium. People started selling books online to various customers. With time librarians created websites as digital library, newspapers created online platforms and authors started their own websites to promote their books. All these developments put together brought the idea of having an online platform where books could be read online.

The level of which the E-book has been accepted within the society is amazing. Because of E-book have been introduce very few people today use the bookshops to have access to the various books they use. This shows that many people use this technology. Very few people have rejected the idea. In fact, most of those who have rejected it are authors who says it reduces the number of copies they sell. Even the authors do agree that to some extent the E-book is good, which shows that this technology generally is widely accepted. Using the Maslow’s hierarchy of needs to identify the various needs that have been met by this technology, it can be said that the various psychological needs of the mind through easy access of such books through this technology makes it to be inferred that such needs have been met.

There are various groups that have benefited through this technology. Examples include education centers such as universities and high schools among others. Through the use of this technology educational institutions have been able to improve the quality of learning in that students have easy access of learning materials through the E-book technology. The various groups that have benefited or at least used this technology have supported it. This have been done through such institutions subscribing to the various organizations that provide such services of E-book.

There are various economic impacts that this technology has brought in the society. One of the economic impacts to the society is that it reduces employment opportunities. This is because people who could be employed through the business of bookshop cannot be employed as E-book provide a similar service online (Peters & Bell, 2007). People can access the books from where they are so there is no need of someone being employed to do such tasks. The people who are behind this technology are the people who do the business of websites in partnership with authors of various books and articles among others. These are the people who can be said to be making money out of the technology. This is because the people owning the websites buy rights from the authors and then they make people pay to have access to such books through their websites.

Access to information is one of the rights that citizens in most states have been given as a right under the Bill of Rights and international statutes that provides for such rights. This fact has made this an issue of public interest. Politicians who are the people who form the governments are the people responsible for allocating of money to be spent in sectors. This means that politicians as the controllers of how government money is spend will spend less money allocating for books as such books can be found in the digital platforms for free or at minimal costs.

There are various ways in which cultures can be promoted and preserved. Among the many way is the writing of such cultures in books so that generations and generations to come can learn and understand them. One of the problems that has made it difficult for the cultures to be promoted and preserved through culture is the fact that accessing of such books has been expensive and also difficult. The E-book will make it easy for accessing the books that have been aimed and promoting and preserving cultures.

Book is one of those things that have been argued by environmentalist to be destroying nature and environment. This is because resource that is used for making books is trees. Through the introduction of the E-book technology it can be argues that there should be ideal reduction in the cutting of trees to be used in the making of books. This means that there will be increased number of trees in the environment. This will in turn lead to us having a clean environment as trees helps in circulation of air in the atmosphere and also attracts rain.

It is worth noting that any innovation always has an impact on humanity either positively or negatively. One of the effects that E-book technology has on humanity is the fact that it helps in improving the intellectual capacity of the humanity thus reducing the level of illiteracy and ignorance (Estrada-Maria & Higham, 2010). This is because it makes access of knowledge to be easy and cheap that it can be accessed by many people. Another impact is that it may lead to reduction of humanity since the only way to access the books is through technology which tends have certain side effects which reduces the live span of people through diseases such as cancer among others.

From the analysis above, it is evident that there are various impacts that the introduction of E-book technology has had on the society socially, politically, economically and environmentally among others. Most of the impacts are positive in nature while there are few ones that are negative in nature. This means that the technology is generally one of great use to the society as the benefits outweighs the disadvantages.

Bogue, R. (2002). Mobilize yourself!: the Microsoft guide to mobile technology. New York: Microsoft Press.

Estrada-Maria, E., & Higham, F.-D. (2010). Network Science: Complexity in Nature and Technology. New York: Springer.

Peters, T., & Bell, L. (2007). The handheld library: mobile technology and the librarian. Boston: Routeledge.

PricewaterhouseCoopers. (2010). Turning the page: the future of eBooks. London: Oxford University Press.