The Impact of IT on Our Lives.

(From Journal of Japanese Trade & Industry (JJTI))

Byline: Nohara Sawako

How IT Has Changed Our Lives The impact of the widespread penetration of IT in our daily lives today can be broadly divided into three categories.

First, the diffusion of personal computers and mobile phones, along with their linking to networks, has created a massive change in the way we communicate and access information.

People can make phone calls anywhere and anytime with a mobile, and extensive use of mobile phone-based email allows people to exchange messages wherever they are. The proliferation of built-in digital cameras in mobile phones has developed the exchange of personal photographs with family and friends into a new type of interpersonal communication. In addition, web-based Internet communities are gaining more and more adherents. Exchanging information or advice with people one does not know or has never met has become common today. Interpersonal communication has been revolutionized.

It is also becoming the norm to use the Internet to gather information for everyday life. For example, if you want to take a vacation, you can now book hotels, buy tickets or make train reservations in cyberspace. When you want to eat out, you can choose the restaurant online and reserve by phone. Going out? Just download a map, and get your traffic information or train transfer info off the Web. If you are looking for a hospital, cinema times, news or weather forecast - check the Internet. Not only that - job seekers can search for job openings online. If you want to buy a condominium, check out the realtor's homepage. If you need information about hobbies... the list is endless; for whatever aspect of life one may require information, use of the Internet has become commonplace. The way we gather information has changed considerably.

The second category has to do with changes in patterns of consumer behavior. Internet shopping has become prevalent. Books, music CDs, food, clothing... a huge range of consumer goods is available online. The reservation and purchase of travel tickets and Internet banking have become widespread, and online stock trading is expanding. It has become quite unexceptional to make reservations, orders and payments via the Internet. A new style of trading goods has emerged in the form of online auctions; which allow people to buy and sell all manner of goods.