Digital Identity and Social Media: Transforming Modern Economics

This essay examines the significant impact of technological innovation, particularly digital identity and social media, on modern economics and society. It highlights how technology has revolutionized economic systems by enabling better control, analysis, and prediction of economic trends, contrasting this with the monarchical systems of the past. The essay also discusses the profound influence of social media on societal development, emphasizing its role in facilitating social interactions, public discussions, and business promotions. It further explores the positive and negative impacts of technology, including automation-induced job losses, distractions from overuse, and environmental concerns, while also acknowledging the benefits in agriculture, transportation, communication, and education. The essay concludes that while technology offers numerous advantages, it is crucial to address its negative consequences to ensure sustainable and balanced development.

Running Head: DIGITAL IDENTITY AND SOCIAL MEDIA
Digital Identity and Social Media
Name of the Student
Name of the University

1DIGITAL IDENTITY AND SOCIAL MEDIA
Introduction
Technology and innovation has played a very significant role in the evolution of mankind
from the primitive age to the modern era. Technology has affected every aspect of human
development that includes economy, society, commerce, industry and others. Since, the impact
of technology is extremely vast, the main focus of this particular essay is on the economics and
societies that are affected and impacted by technology and innovation (Leyden & Link, 2015).
Technology literally means the art of craft but in reality, it refers to any significant development
that has massively benefitted mankind. While the initial forms of technology included stone
tools, basic crafts and others, today, even the development of an internet connection is also
considered as technology. While modern technology has many faces, its impact on modern
economics and society is very much evident (Mowery et al., 2015). Modern technology has
promoted the innovation of various useful gadgets and facilities that have boosted the growth of
economics and the evolution of the society.
In this essay, the impact of technology and innovation on the economics and societies has
been analyzed using reference from literature and appropriate discussions have been made.
Impact of Technology and Innovation on Economics and Societies
Technology can be realistically defined as any development that provides benefit for the
mankind. Technology includes small objects like tools to large objects like machineries.
Technology also includes the various systems of daily usage like internet connection, telephonic
connection and others.

2DIGITAL IDENTITY AND SOCIAL MEDIA
According to Gosens, Lu and Coenen (2015), technological innovation has played a
major role in the development of economics of the modern world. Without the aid of technology,
economics was unbalanced, often inaccurate and there was no proper input and output systems
that are required from the economics of any nation. In the age of monarchy around the world,
economy was controlled by a single person i.e. the monarch and there was no suitable framework
to utilize the economy for the overall development of the nation / empire. However, with the
development of technology and innovation of various tools and techniques in the mid-20th to the
21st century, economy has evolved significantly (Cohen & Sundararajan, 2015). There are
technical tools available for monitoring the input and output of the economy and also controlling
the economy of the nation as per the conditions require. There are also specific tools that can be
used to analyze economic data and predict the future trends of economics. Hence, it can be
rightly said that technological innovation has significantly affected and benefitted the economics
with the advanced tools that have been developed throughout the years.
Authors Golembiewski, Sick and Bröring (2015) have discussed about the impact of
technological innovation on human society. According to them, technological development has
played a massive role in the modernization of the human society. One major technological
innovation that has impacted the human society is the social medium. Social medium can be
defined as the online social platform where the people from various parts of the world can
interact with each other over a common platform. While the invention of telephone has been
considered to reduce the distances between two different parts of the world as one person was
able to talk to another person in a different part of the world (Guo et al., 2016). However, social
medium has truly reduced the distance as two persons can interact without having to wait for
telephonic connection or even high rates of payment for the telephone calls. Furthermore, one

3DIGITAL IDENTITY AND SOCIAL MEDIA
telephonic connection can only be used for interaction between two people. On the other hand,
social media can be used for interaction between thousands of people within one single people.
Hence, social media can be used for public discussions, online voting and other purposes. These
social interactions within the people have significantly promoted the growth and modernization
of the society as well as social unity. For instance, after a certain mishap or a public uprising,
people can use the social media to spread the news and gather more and more participants from
around the world (Wu, Nager & Chuzhin, 2016). Again, social media can be used by the
business organizations for promotions and advertisements as they will have much better reach
that normal advertisements and billboards. In addition, using social media for advertisements
also saves a lot of expenses from the regular advertisements and promotions.
Social medium is not the only technological invention that has benefitted the human
society. From the initiation of the technological age, technological innovations have been rolled
out that have either improved the quality of life of the people or enhanced various processes like
agriculture, manufacturing and others that fulfill the daily requirements of the societies around
the world (Narula, 2014). Technology has also allowed people to travel large distances within a
very short time as well as perform advanced operations for promoting social modernization.
However, although most of the authors have discussed about the impact of technology on
society and the benefits that the society has received, many of the authors have mostly ignored or
discussed the negative impacts that the technology has on the human society as well as
economics (Geissdoerfer et al., 2017). Based on the data collected from the literature as well as
study on real life case studies, the positive and negative impacts of technology and innovation on
economics as well as society are as follows.

4DIGITAL IDENTITY AND SOCIAL MEDIA
Technological Innovation Economics Societies
Positive Impacts Control over the flow of
economy is much more easier,
error free and faster.
Specific economical framework
can be developed based on the
requirements of the country.
Prediction of future trends is now
possible using various analytics
tools.
Technology has significantly
improved the quality of life of
the people.
Various people in the society can
now interact together within the
same platform.
Social development is boosted
using the social media platforms.
Various activities like online
polling, promotions and
advertisements are possible due
to the technological innovations.
Crowdfunding and mass
gatherings are possible due to the
technological inventions
involving social media.
Negative Impacts Due to automation caused by the
technological innovations, many
people have lost employment.
The available technological
innovations are not sufficient for
controlling economic metrics like
GDP, productivity, corporate
profits.
Technological innovation does
As people are more inclined
towards the technological
innovations, they spend too much
time with the technical gadgets
instead of performing their
regular activities.
Technical gadgets like
smartphones, televisions,
computers and others provide

5DIGITAL IDENTITY AND SOCIAL MEDIA
not provide absolute information
security; any unauthorized
personnel can use advanced
hacking techniques to breach the
server and steal confidential
national information regarding
economy.
Use of tools like analytics does
not ensure success; the tools can
only be used for rough
estimation.
Human intelligence is not
available in the technological
tools that are being used in
economics.
massive distractions for young
learners and school children.
Personal information of the
people often gets stolen through
data breach occurrences in the
internet.
Overuse of technology in modern
world has given rise to several
global problems like pollution,
depletion of natural resources
and others.
Technology often leads to social
development in an uncontrollable
manner.
Etzkowitz and Ranga (2015) discussed that the impact of technology on society is so vast
that it is not possible to prepare just a list of advantages and disadvantages. However, the author
has discussed about some specific impact where technology has been mostly successful. These
are discussed as follows.
Agriculture – Technology has made a huge impact on agriculture. In the early days,
agriculture was done manually and farming animals due to which, the production was slow and
inefficient. With the advent of agriculture technology, the entire process has been mechanized.
From leveling of the farming land, sowing of seeds, watering to harvesting, every agricultural
activity can now be done using technical devices and vehicles (Bason, 2018). As a result, the

6DIGITAL IDENTITY AND SOCIAL MEDIA
process has become faster and much more efficient. On the other hand, the processes have
become much more expensive such that many of the farmers are not able to afford the
technology. Hence, this technology is not yet feasible for agriculture in spite of all the benefits
available.
Transportation – Technology has also evolved the transportation system around the
world. In the ancient times, the modes of transportation included animals like horses, animal
drawn carts and later wooden ships for navigation. With technology, numerous modes of
transportation have been developed that include roadways, railways, metro railways, planes,
massive ships and others (Goss, 2015). These modes of transportation are much faster and
transport passengers and cargo at unbelievable speeds. Using these modes of transportation,
people can travel to any country from any location around the world without much difficulty.
Communication – Communication process has been significantly facilitated by the
evolution of technological innovations. The innovation started with the first wired telephone
through which people could communicate within very short distances. Currently, in the field of
communication, there are wireless mobile phones, internet connection and others through which,
people can communicate over large distances from anywhere to anywhere on the earth (Garden
et al., 2016). Communication is also successfully established within a certain range of the space
outside of the earth.
Digital Identity – With the development of the internet technology, any individual can
now create his own digital identity that includes several methods of verification for the
identification of the individual later on (Weaver et al., 2017). Using digital identity, a person can
perform various activities in the internet like interaction with other people, promote services or

7DIGITAL IDENTITY AND SOCIAL MEDIA
products, purchase items from ecommerce websites and others as well as for his own
identification.
Education and Learning Process – The education system has undergone a revolution
after the implementation of suitable technology (Ulnicane, 2015). Introduction of computer in
the education system has resulted in faster and more efficient teaching process that involves
interactive learning process, distance learning, presentation based learning and others.
There are also negative impacts of technology on the human society that are summarized
and discussed as follows.
Depletion of Resources – With the development of mining technology, the natural
resources like coal, oil, natural gas and others are mined at a fast pace and with great efficiency.
As a result of continuous mining, the resources are getting depleted and within the next few
decades, some of the major resources will be completely finished. This is a significant concern of
the rapid pace of technological development.
Increased Population – With the development of medical technology, the birth rates
have increased by a considerable margin and in turn, the population of the earth is expanding in
an exponential manner (Hutter et al., 2015). As a result of the steep increase in population, the
food, water and other resources are also becoming reduced and insufficient.
Increased Pollution – As a result of constant development of technology, the pollution is
also increasing at an alarming pace that in turn causes unwanted effects like global warming,
melting of polar ice caps, increasing toxicity of air and others. Uncontrolled development of
technological innovation will further aggravate the issue although in recent years, efforts have
been made to emphasize more on eco-friendly technology instead of harmful technologies.

8DIGITAL IDENTITY AND SOCIAL MEDIA
Conclusion
From the analysis, it is evident that technological innovation has made a significant
impact on economy and society. As evident from real life case studies, technological innovation
has played a major role in the development of economics as well as the societies of the modern
world. Without the aid of technology, economics was unbalanced, often inaccurate and there was
no proper input and output systems that are required from the economics of any particular nation.
On the other hand, with the help of technology, modern society has evolved as well as the
qualities of lives of people have increased considerably. However, amidst all the positive impacts
of technology, there are also negative impacts that are less explored but have given rise to global
problems like pollution, unemployment, depletion of resources and others. Based on the overall
analysis, it can be said that technology has both positive and negative sides. Hence, it is
important to roll out the innovations in such a way that the negative impacts are minimized. It is
also important to control the progress of technology and allow rolling out only those innovations
are mostly necessary in the current world setup.

9DIGITAL IDENTITY AND SOCIAL MEDIA
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