CHAPTER VIII

The Information Age (Gutenberg to Social Media)

Objectives
At the end of the topic, the students/readers are expected to:
1.) Explain the importance of the social media sites to modern day living
2.) Explain the importance of information for communication process
3.) Be familiar with the important key element in the communication process

KEY CONCEPT

“Technology has the power to transform society. The most famous example of
this is German craftsman Johannes Gutenberg’s invention of the printing press
in the fifteenth century”.

The period of human history typically described by the change from traditional industry to an
economy based on information computerization is known as the Information Age, Digital Age,
or New Media Age.

The Information Age

Before the rise of computers, information was being spread using print out materials. Johannes
Gutenberg, a German blacksmith and publisher who introduced “movable type printing” in Europe, established
what we called Gutenberg era which is responsible for shaping the nature of society and its underlying
institutions. In this period of time, where Gutenberg principle was formed and that principle is stated as “the
massive distribution of information in an expensive manner because it is institutionalized”

The Pre-Gutenberg World

During the time when printing press was not yet available, information could be processed in a tendinous
manner. Books were written and produced by hand. They were made in surfaces of clay, wax, papyrus and
parchment. The hand-produced books and other reading materials were restricted only to those people who can
afford to buy these materials, called as the “elite group of people”. Information was only relayed to other through
a word-of-mouth channels (Stacy, 2008).

The Gutenberg Revolution

It begun with the introduction of printing, specifically the movable printing press, by Gutenberg. His
principle existed in such a way that information could be passed on to every individual, but the access was
expensive. Books printed in the Gutenberg era were called incunabula (meaning cradle or birthplace). This
technology eventually diffused form Mainz to Subiaco in Italy, Paris and then London. Most books that was first
printed were that of religious texts of the medieval period that were initially written in Latin but as time passed
by, some books are written in local language which made them available and understandable to common people.
Scientific and geographic discoveries spread at a fast rate as well as medical books were also published.

The rise of institutionalized and mediated channels was evident during this time and its best example
was the “media” which can pass information through to people from all walks of life and this opened the door to
exceptional mass communications. But during this period of history, to distribute information to a lot of listeners
or viewers, one must have a ton of money at is was very costly. The unprecedent discovery of printing press has
contributed a lot to the world that was way impossible to books or document written by hand making Johannes
Gutenberg a man of mystery.
The Post-Gutenberg World
This era can be described as the emergence of the internet and the world wide web. This paved the way
to the possible uploading and downloading of all forms of media instruments such as video, audio, and images. It
enabled people to publish or spread the information.

The Rise of Digital Age

With the advent of modern technologies, printing press are not the only tools used in spreading
information. Nowadays, information is readily available to pass form on individual to another from here to even
faraway places.

Computers
Invented by Charles Babbage, an English mechanical engineer and considered the “father of computers”.
This technology was designed for mathematical calculations and simple decision-making capabilities. The ‘main-
frame computers’ were large room-sized computer that provide people data calculation and manipulation faster
than the human brain. Personal computers also available which gave every individual access to computers
(Hughes & Hans, 2017).

The Internet
Developed in California, US in the late 1960 s the internet was mostly used by scientists to communicate
with other scientists. Vinton Cerf and Robert Kahn are the people behind this marvelous piece of technology. It
was a government-controlled project until 1984 and its first countered problem in using it was the speed. The
development of Fiber-optics allowed the billions of bits of information to be received every minute and a
company named “Intel” was one of the companies that developed faster microprocessor like i5 and i7 that can
process any data very quickly.

World Wide Web

Commonly known as ‘www’ was invented by Sir Tim Berners-Lee, a British computer scientist that
started in 1990s and it was basically for commercial purposes. Home pages were made by companies, business
owners or corporation in order to promote and sell their products and eventually, other items could be
purchased online giving ease to shopping. Similarly, online businesses can earn money through online
transactions.

Electronic Mail or E-mail

Several years back, it would take several days to receive a letter and it would also take a big amount of
money to contact and talk to someone very far away. Communication was made easier through ‘E-mail’, the
invention of which was controversially claimed by V.A Shiva Ayyadurai, an Indian-born American scientist and
entrepreneur. He started building the system in 1978 when he was 14 years old. The copyright for the term E-mail
was granted him in 1982. E-mail is an avenue by which messages are exchanged between people from different
locations at a faster rate (Rice & Barman-Adhikari, 2013).

Facebook
A website launched in February 4, 2004 by a computer programmer, Mark Elliot Zuckerberg together
with his fellow students in Harvard College and with other roommates. The membership was first limited to
Harvard students but later, students in Boston area, Ivy League College, and Stanford University were allowed to
get access to the website. Facebook is a social networking website where people could one another and meet on
line to share each other’s thoughts, ideas, experiences, photos, and videos which they feel would be worth
sharing. It can build relationships, can be used in business transactions and could be a source of games (Hughes
& Hans, 2017).

Twitter
Created in march 2006 by Jack Dorsey, Noah Glass, Biz Tone, and Evan Williams. It is another
networking website where people post and interact with message or “tweets” which are restricted only for up to
140 characters and one of the visited websites and is considered the “SMS of the internet” (Rice & Barman-
Adhikari, 2013).

Messenger
Originally developed as Facebook Chat in 2008 but changed its messaging service in 2010. An instant
messaging service and software application. This can be used to sent messages to other people through written
messages, voice calls or video calls. The latter could be in a one-to-one interaction or even in group
conversations (Hughes & Hans, 2017).

YouTube
Today’s on-line largest destination and the third most visited website. This website makes its way
through the social media via the tandem of Chad Hurley and Steve Chen. In 2005, during Valentine’s day, Hurley
registered the logo and domain of YouTube. After three months, a small group of employees launched the site
www.youtube.com, one of the best ways to watch videos that can also be shared. It contains videos about
enormous aspects of life through this website.

Google
Larry Page and Sergey Brin, both PhD students at Stanford University developed Google as a research
project in 1996. The domain “google.com” was registered in September 1997 and now the most used search
engine in the world wide web. It offers us a variety of features beyond searching for words, these may include
synonyms or word meanings, time zones, maps, weather forecasts, sports scores, calculations, etc., and also for
research or journal articles as references for theses and dissertations. Yahoo in Japan is one of the great
competitors of Google.

Instagram
Created by Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger in October 2010 is a fun photography application that is
gaining fame all over the globe. This can be used to enhanced and give style to your photo which can later be
shared with other using the same application. A user-friendly app but other apps could also provide the same
features.

The social media platforms mentioned above are the most commonly used platforms by people but there
are still other social media platforms which are the following:
- Blab - Snapchat
- hi5 - Bing
- Houseparty - Xing
- LinkedIN - Flickr
- MyLife - Vimeo
- Meerkat - iTunes
- Periscope - MySpace
- Ning
- Plaxo

Their invention and use became a very significant part of economy and it gave great impact in the
workforce in many different ways. Workers who are not well-versed with automation are forced to look for
automated jobs and they also forced to compete globally competitive jobs and worse, some workers are being
replaced by computers which can make the job much faster and which do not require compensation. On lighter
note, computerization has given much benefit to us. It resulted in high productivity in the workplace. Nowadays,
bills payment, bank transactions, online shopping, and the like are much easier than without computers and
internet.

From Gutenberg to Information Age, evolution of technology has made us realize that modernization of
information and communication process have become the power behind social evolution.