GAPAN CITY COLLEGE

City Hall Compound, Bayanihan, Gapan City,

Nueva Ecija, Philippines 3105
General Education Department
Week 8 Module in
SCIENCE TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY

Name: ______________________________________ Score: ___________/

Course, Year & Sec.: ___________________________ Date: ____________

Lesson 8:
The Information Age (Gutenberg to Social Media)

I. OBJECTIVES
At the end of the lesson, you should be able to:
a. explain the importance of the social media sites to modern day living;
b. explain the importance of information for communication process; and
c. be familiar with the important key element in the communication process.

II. CONCEPT NOTES

“Technology has the power to transform society. The most famous example of this is German
craftsman Johannes Gutenberg’s invention of the printing pressing 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
To learn more about the information age, read and write the following concepts in your Batang Gapan
Notebook.

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

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
Gapan City College
Week 8: Science Technology and Society
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 1960s 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
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Week 8: Science Technology and Society
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 Plaxo
Hi5 Snapchat
Houseparty Bing
LinkedIN Xing
MyLife Flickr
Meerkat Vimeo
Periscope Itunes
Ning MySpace

 Their invention and use became a very significant part of economy and it gave great impact in the

Gapan City College

Week 8: Science Technology and Society
 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.

III. ACTIVITIES

Activity 1. List the your most used social media platform below and explain how you spend your time using
said social media platforms, also detail how the use of each platform helps in your daily life. List at least 5
social media platforms. (10 points)
1. ________________________________________________
________________________________________________
________________________________________________
2. ________________________________________________
________________________________________________
________________________________________________
3. ________________________________________________
________________________________________________
________________________________________________
4. ________________________________________________
________________________________________________
________________________________________________
5. ________________________________________________
________________________________________________
________________________________________________

Activity 2. Imagine a world where the information age did not happen, what do you think the world would look
like. Write a paragraph detailing your answer below. (20 points)

Gapan City College

Week 8: Science Technology and Society
Activity 3. Explain what is happening in the pictures below and explain what is its connection to the
information and communication process. (20 points

12

3 4

Gapan City College

Week 8: Science Technology and Society
REFERENCES

Birkerts, S. (2006). The Gutenberg elegies: The fate of reading in an electronic age. Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

Castells, M. (2010). The information age. Media Studies: A Reader, 2(7), 152.

Kline, R. R. (2015). The cybernetics moment: Or why we call our age the information age. JHU Press.

Nunberg, G. (1996). Farewell to the information age (p. 103). na.

Rupp-Serrano, K. (1994). From Gutenberg to Gigabytes: The Electronic Periodical Comes of Age. American
Periodicals, 96-104.

Sussman, G. (1997). Communication, technology, and politics in the information age (Vol. 27). Sage.

Prepared by:

JOHN RONALD T. POLICARPIO

Instructor

Gapan City College

Week 8: Science Technology and Society