The Information Age

More than ever before, advances in the fields of information and communication technologies (ICTs) have substantially affected most segments of our individual life in today's world. Manifested in various aspects and to varying extents, the changes and evolution are often collectively referred to as the "Information Age," or the "Information Revolution." It is this Information Age that has been posing a direct or indirect influence– whether positive or negative–on the way we think, behave, communicate, work, and even on how we earn our living. 'Information' has become a principal 'commodity' by which one measures levels of not only education, skills and knowledge, but also levels of well-being, prosperity, wealth, and development on a personal, local, national, and international scale. As the worldwide information landscape becomes more and more interconnected and interdependent, it is argued that the existing gap between the "haves" and "have-nots" will diminish. Interdependencies growing in all aspects of our lives should, after all, lead to real possibilities for achieving economic prosperity and attaining global peace. Nevertheless, they also produce powerful forces of social fragmentation, open critical vulnerabilities, and breed violence and conflict. Crises now bypass traditional state borders. The expanding global economic interactions, the spread of knowledge, the dispersion of advanced technologies, and the movements of people are just some of the threats, which are global in scope.