Democratization of Information Essay Example

Facebook alone has over 500 million users, 70% of them are outside of the United States, 50% of it’s active users log on everyday, and the average user posts 90 pieces of content each month. That is a ample amount of information for just one website. From the moment we wake up until the moment we go to bed out lives are consumed by TV shows, e-mail alerts, radio broadcasts, and text messages. Countless hours are spent watching and listening to the propaganda being transmitted on the screen. Information has become increasingly democratized over the past several decades, the sharing of information has also evolved dramatically, and technology has completely altered the way we communicate with each other in this day and age. Democratization of information means simply that general information has become readily accessible to anyone with a internet connection or cell phone signal. People have acquired information over the generations using several different methods such as the newspaper, radio, telephone, television and internet. The circulation of information has increased rapidly since the invention of the printing press around the year 1441. Today, social networking sites, particularly Myspace, Facebook, Twitter, Etc, have altered the way information is distributed. People spend over 700 billion minutes per month on Facebook alone. Either a blog post or a television show may reach zero people or millions of people. The sharing of information has expanded beyond anything we thought was possible only 50 years ago. The definition of “information age”, according to Dictionary.com, is a period beginning in the last quarter of the 20th century when information became easily accessible through publications and through the manipulation of information by computer networks. In other words, the way we receive our information in the twenty-first century has changed the world. However, when technologies become obsolete they are tossed into trash bins or found yard sales.