Utopia or Dystopia

Today’s society many will argue that we have entered a new age governed by a new concept where society and its economic relations are no longer primarily organised on the foundation of material goods. Instead they are now controlled on the basis of information and knowledge, which is referred to as the arrival of a global information society. The information society is best represented by the internet which has changed everything that we witness in today’s society, for many it is seen as the remaking of a new world with better opportunities and resources that would be installed to advance society. for many it prompts celebration of an approaching utopia, but some do say that these developments also mean progression towards a dystopia.

Many have argued that changes in (ICTs) have transformed the way in how we see the world. This suggestion was made by Marshall Mcluhan, who had popularised the term ‘global village’, the ‘age of information’ and ‘the medium is the message’. He argues that new technologies have extended our capabilities and has enhanced certain aspects of practise which previously had been limited, however at the same time new technologies can implement these advances and make them seem as part of everyday life. Individuals have the ability to restructure their society by remaking their communication networks, which confine the structure of identity. Sherry Turkle argues that one key transformation that has come out of the information society is the ability recreate your own identity which is due to the high rate of secrecy of online communication, the internet gives one the opputunnity to become more than one person, presenting different ‘selves’ which is freeing one from social control.
(C. May, 2002, Pg: 9&11