Ethical, Social and Cultural Issues Related to Information Technology

This paper focuses on the major ethical, cultural and social issues that may come up while using the modern devises. The paper discusses the issues related to mobile computing, modern devices, social issues, ethical issues, economical and legal issues.

Running head: INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
Information Technology
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Table of Contents
Introduction....................................................................................................................2
Mobile computing: Laptops, tablets and smart phones; work from anywhere:.............2
Modern Devices:........................................................................................................3
Social Issues:..............................................................................................................4
Ethical Issues..............................................................................................................7
Economical and legal issues:.....................................................................................8
Conclusion......................................................................................................................9
References....................................................................................................................10

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Introduction
In the modern world, every person can be seen using a gadget for various kinds of
purposes. The use of these devices have increased significant in the last decade after the
developed of the technologies like the Android Phones, IPhone , gaming consoles, gaming
laptops and other devices. The use of these technology are helping in many sectors like the
education, science, transport and other for the process of enhancing the regular life of the
people. But yet, there are some of the other major consequences of using the same (De Vries,
Gensler and Leeflang 2012). There have been some of the major ethical, social and cultural
issues related to these devices. With time these devices have become smaller as well as more
powerful. In an estimate it was found that nearly 90% population in the world in possessing a
smart device (Kim and Ko 2012). Thus it can be said that the use of the smartphones have
helped a lot in the making the world more modern.
This paper focuses on the major ethical, cultural and social issues that may come up
while using the modern devises. As the devises can be used form any place due to its small
size hence are creating some of the major dilemmas in the society. This paper focuses on this
factor and issues that are caused due to these devices.
Mobile computing: Laptops, tablets and smart phones; work from anywhere:
The use of the mobile phones and the smartphones have helped in the process of
enhancing, the world the in many ways. But there are some of the major ethical dilemmas
that have been detected in the system (Bruhn, Schoenmueller and Schäfer 2012). The use of
the modern communicating devises are not only limited to home and office spaces but have
significantly increased in the public domain. It can be seen that every person is using these
devices all the times (Pfeffer, Zorbach and Carley 2014). The increase in internet availability
is one of the major reason behind this.

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Modern Devices:
Since the year of 2004 with the introduction of the smartphones and social networking
sites like the Facebook people had started using these devices all the times. By later years
with the development of IPhone and android phones, a mobile device became available to
every other person in the world. Cheaper mobile data plans made it easier for the people to
access internet all the times (Gil de Zúñiga, Jung and Valenzuela 2012). Before the
introduction of these system individuals would have to visit the internet cafes or use high cost
broadband in offices or at home. But with the introduction of the mobile system, anybody
would use the internet from anywhere. One of the report from the Europe stated that there
have been 40% increases in the number of the internet users since the introduction of the
smart devices. The devices started becoming smaller and more accessible to people in the
subsequent time. The development of the tablets became a trend for the techno organisations.
Individuals would now use the power of the mobile devices in a larger screen sizes (Martins,
Oliveira and Popovič 2014). This became of the other major turning point. The development
of the social media sites like the Facebook and twitter, video sites like YouTube became an
easy access to the people all over the world.
Apart from the mobile devices, the laptops or the personal computers also became
advanced by this times. The laptops became lighter in weight and became easier for carrying,
also the powers increased. People became addicted to these technologies. The youth or the
younger generation became the most hit because of these systems (Autor, Dorn and Hanson
2015). The younger generation are very much negatively hit due to fact of the over using the
technology all the times. In certain cases it have been seen that teens are having zero
involvement in regular physical actives and this leads to a huge problems. These leads to
several mental as well as physical issues mainly in students of the lower age.

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Social Issues:
The use of the smartphone everywhere are having some of the major ethical issues
that are related to the users of the device. In today’s world the people have been constantly
checking there smart phone or other device in order to enhance the social media activity.
With the use of the chatting applications the people are always connected to outside world.
But all these are happening only over a computer network (Hwang and Wu 2014). Although
these seems to be making the world socially strong yet there are some of the major backlogs
of the system that are effecting the human beings in a negative way. Some of the serious
social issues that the use of the social media has insured in the life of the normal people:
 Isolation: This is one of the major social issues that is been faced by majority
of the population of the world these days. With the increase in the use of the
mobile devices and laptops, people are confined to a fixed position. People
tend not to move out of there comfort zone and have been fixed to limited
people. Thus, people have been limited to fix zone and totally isolated (Huijts,
Molin and Steg 2012). This increases the problems like deportation in humans
and can be considered one of the major social problem that the world is facing
toady.
 Lack of Social Skills: Using and seeing the world using the technology makes
one less social skills. When people faces one another face to face it reduces
the process of speaking in a better manner. Thus reducing the social skills of
the person.
 Obesity: Due to the prolong sitting in one place for long duration of time and
using the laptops are increase the number of obese patient in the world. This is
one of the major symptom that is foetidly found in lower ages and are incrsing

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with time (Toma and Hancock 2013). Thus, this is creating one of the major
problem in the field of social problems in the world.
 Poor Sleeping Habits: Due to the smaller size of the smartphones it have
become easier for the people to use it before sleeping (Feenberg, 2012). The
social Medias are created in such a way that people find it easier to use it
while in the bed. The brightness that is coming from the smart phones makes it
difficult for the user to sleep and hence reduces the sleep of the person. Thus,
it can be said that it is major problem for the society (Wouters et al. 2013).
Due to the lack of sleep there arises some of the serious problems like
insomnia, lack of concentration and others. Thus it must be made sure this
problem does not happen to any teen ager at the first place.
 Pollution: In the current world there are billions of electronic device that is
been used. The life of these systems are not very long and soon enough
becomes waste products. Thus it can be estimated the amount of the waste that
can be generated once all the devices are thrown (Pham and Ho 2015). On top
that every day thousands of new devices are sold to the people and more waste
are created.
 Increased Bullying: The concept of the cyber bulling is one of the major
problem that is been faced by most of the teen agers. This is one of the major
criminal offence that is creating problem for many of the countries. Some of
the countries are having their own cyber police that look after the cyber
bulling.
 Lack of Privacy: Personal securities one of the basic need that every person
deserves. With the increase in the number of the internet and portable devices
like the mobiles and the laptops these problems are incrsing hugely (Cheung

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and Vogel 2013). With a few scans on a console a person can find anybody’s
address or contact information. For those with more sinister intentions, the use
of ‘phishing’, viruses and hacking helps to find any information they wish to
obtain. Plus, people have no sense of privacy online
 Warped Sense of Reality: It is often seen that the modern generation are
having some of the wreaked sense of the reality. This is one of the major
problems that the parents face when a teen uses too much the electronic goods.
The rise in the adult contents and harmful gaming in the computer systems are
increasing these things in a regular manner. Thus it can be said that this is one
of the major problem that is often faced by the people.
 Stress: Constant use of the mobile phones and the laptop systems increases the
amount of the stress in a person. This is due to fact of the prolong usage of the
mobile devices for a long duration of time (Andriessen 2012). Hence, people
must ensure that the smartphones should not be used for prolong duration of
times. One of the major consequence of stress is that it risers the amount of
anger in people and thus makes a person more and more violent.
 Blackberry/iPhone Thumb: The tendonitis in the thumb commonly known as
the Blackberry/iPhone Thumb, is an arrangement of repetitive stress strain
injury or the RSSI that is directly attributable and is caused by the everyday
use of thumbs to use buttons on mobile devices (Gribben et al. 2013). The
same injury can also be obtained from playing too many video games in the
laptops and gaming consoles.
 Lack of Social Boundaries: similar to the security issue, the same way that
people share on social Medias sites, is increasing the tendency to cross social

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boundaries (Anderson et al. 2014). Cyber stalking someone or sending
unsolicited nude photos are examples of grossly crossing social boundaries.
 Lack of Sexual Boundaries: Similar to the lack of the social boundaries the
lack of the sexual boundary is one of the major problem in the society. The
concept of sharing personal images are hampering the life of many individuals
and are causing some of the serious issues related to the use of the social
media. This can be said that one of the major problem in the social media and
it increases the anger of society toward the technology. With the easy
availability of technology this is one of the major problem that is often faced.
 Constant Distraction: Focusing of the mobile phones and laptops instead of the
scenario around is one of the major problem that the society is facing. This can
be called one of the major problem as it increases the chances of accidents and
injuries.
 Lack of Social Bonds: The lack of the social bond is one of the other major
problem that is often faced by many teenagers. It is often seen that a person is
more friend to a person in the social life than in person (Bolton et al. 2013).
With the use of the social media the one to one interactions are decreasing that
these are creating some of the major problems for the people around the world.
 Shortened Attention Span: The use of social media has shortened attention
spans from an average of 12 minutes down to around 5 minutes (Bloom et al.
2014). Constant news feeds, getting information in 140 character blocks and
videos that are 10 minutes or less is literally rewiring our brains.

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Ethical Issues
Other than the social factors there are some of the major economical and ethical
factors that are related to the use of the smart phones and the tablets everywhere (Rosen et al.
2014). The major ethical issues that are related to the use of these devises are:
 Using these devises in the offices and other restricted areas: This is one of the
major problem that many of the organisations and other sectors in the modern
times. As the smart phone and the tablets as well as the laptops are smaller in
size hence are portable and can be easily hidden (Gensler et al. 2013). Thus it
makes it simpler while using these in the sectors where it is not allowed to be
used. This devises can be a serious threat to an organisation as these can have
very much lethal effect on the security of the organisation.
 Security: The personal security is one of the other major problem that is been
arising due to the increased use of these devices (Hutter et al. 2013). Due to
the increase in the internet and social media, finding someone’s address or
phone number detail is no longer a long task. It can simply be done using a
laptop and internet using Google. Thus, this becomes one of the major ethical
issue related to the use of the electronic devices.
 Gaming Violence: The gaming violence is one of the major problem that is
often faced by many individuals. This is one of the serious issue that have
been faced by some of the major organisation. This not only destroys the
moral of a person but also increases the anger of a person.
Economical and legal issues:
 E-payment fraud: This is one of the major ethical and legal issue that have
emerged due to internet and smart devices. The electronic payment options
helps the user to pay money using the internet but this is causing some of the

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major issues .The increase in the number of E-payment frauds have left the
governments baffled up. This is one of the major thing that is to be processed.
 Tax crackdown: The increase in the technology have let people use different
mediums like the bit coins to be hidden from the tax agencies (Hau et al.
2013). This is one of the major problem that is decreasing the value of a nation
as the tax agencies are unable to access information about the money.
Conclusion:
Thus, concluding the topic it can be said that with use of the smartphone there have
been a number of social, economic and legal issues that have been increasing. The devices
started becoming smaller and more accessible to people in the subsequent time. Although the
use of these technology are helping in many sectors like the education, science, transport and
other for the process of enhancing the regular life of the people. But yet, there are some of the
other major consequences of using the same. The government of the world needs to take
measures in order to cope up with the legal and economic factors. While, it is the
responsibility of an individual to self-control and not to use these devises in a harmful
manner. In cases of the youths, the parents must take measures in order shape the future of
the child. The smartphone like android devices, IPhones, tablets and laptops are having two
faces, the good and the bad, it depends on the person who is using it.

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