Impacts of Digital Technology on Society

Every gain has a cost

Questions on the impact of digital technology are easy to answer badly. The weak answer is a list: computers are good because they are fast, or bad because of hackers. It sounds like an argument and scores very little. The reason is that almost every impact of digital technology is a TRADE-OFF. The same technology brings a benefit and a cost at the same time. Online shopping is convenient and puts high-street shops out of business. Storing data lets a service help you and lets it be lost or misused. A strong answer holds both sides at once. And there are four lenses the specification asks you to look through, each asking the same question in a different way: who gains, who loses, and what is owed? The ETHICAL lens asks whether something is right or fair. Is it fair that some people are left out? Is it right to use data this way? The LEGAL lens asks whether it obeys the law. There are laws that protect personal data, laws that make it illegal to access computers or data without permission, and laws that protect who owns creative and software work. The CULTURAL lens asks how it changes the way people live, work and communicate. It connects people across the world, and it can also isolate people or leave behind those without access. The ENVIRONMENTAL lens asks its cost to the planet. Making and powering devices uses energy and raw materials and creates electronic waste, while digital tools can also cut travel and paper. Underneath the legal lens sits legislation, which is society drawing the line, deciding which trade-offs are simply not allowed. Carry one question through everything that follows: what does this technology give, what does it cost, who bears each, and which lens am I looking through?

Words for the impacts

Five terms, each defined by what it is. The first four are the lenses; the last is at the heart of the ethical and legal ones.

Tap the two that weigh both sides

Tap the TWO statements that hold a benefit and a cost together, rather than listing just one side.

• Online shopping is convenient for customers but takes trade away from local shops and the people they employ
• Storing personal data lets a service help you and also creates something that can be lost or misused
• Computers are good because they are fast
• Digital technology is bad because of hackers

Which lens is this

A concern is raised that making and throwing away huge numbers of devices uses raw materials and creates electronic waste. Which lens is this, and why?

• The environmental lens, because it is about the cost to the planet in materials, energy and waste
• The legal lens, because throwing things away must be against the law
• The cultural lens, because it is about how people live
• None, because the environment is not part of this topic

One technology, two sides

The same example, seen as a benefit and as a cost. A strong answer keeps both in view.

Match each concern to who it affects

Two that follow from the trade-off

Select the TWO statements that follow from every impact being a trade-off seen through a lens.

• A strong answer names both a benefit and a cost, not just one side
• It helps to name who gains and who loses, not just that there is an effect
• Digital technology is simply good, so there is nothing to weigh
• Only the legal lens matters, because the others are just opinions

Answering an impacts question

A method for any question about the impact of digital technology. Name the lens the question is using. Decide whether it is asking an ethical, legal, cultural or environmental question, because that tells you what kind of point counts. Give the benefit and the cost. State what the technology gives and what it takes away. A point with only one side reads as a list and scores low. Name who gains and who loses. Say whose interest is served and whose is harmed. An impact is always an impact on somebody. Reach for legislation on the legal side. Where the question is legal, note that laws exist to protect personal data, to forbid access without permission, and to protect who owns work, and say which kind applies. Describe the law by what it does, not by guessing its exact name. Judge, do not just describe. If asked to evaluate, weigh the sides and come to a supported view, rather than leaving two lists side by side. Two habits cost marks. The first is a one-sided list of good things or bad things. The second is a vague claim that names no lens and no one affected.

Order a balanced impacts answer

Put the steps of building a strong impacts point into a sensible order.

• Name the lens the question is using
• State the benefit the technology brings
• State the cost it brings at the same time
• Name who gains and who loses
• Weigh the two sides and reach a supported view

Build the impacts rule

This is the idea the whole topic rests on. Assemble it.

The impacts quick-fire

Five questions on the impacts of digital technology. Three lives.

One system, four lenses

Here is the method on one example, run through all four lenses. The system is a smart doorbell that records video, described in general terms with no invented figures. Through the ETHICAL lens, it helps a household feel safer, and it also records visitors and passers-by who never agreed to be filmed, so it raises a fairness question about their consent. Through the LEGAL lens, the footage is personal data about identifiable people, so laws about protecting personal data apply, and there are limits on recording beyond your own property. The point is not the exact name of a law but that the law has something to say here. Through the CULTURAL lens, such devices change how people relate to their street: some feel more secure, and others feel watched, so the technology shifts everyday behaviour in both directions. Through the ENVIRONMENTAL lens, the device is one more thing manufactured, powered and eventually thrown away, adding to energy use and electronic waste, though it may also save some journeys. Notice what the four lenses did. They stopped the answer being a flat it is good or it is bad. Each lens produced a benefit and a cost, and each pointed at who was affected. That is a top-band answer, and the same four questions work on any technology the exam sets. Weigh the sides, name the lens, name who bears the cost.

Complete the impacts facts

The lens that asks whether something is right or fair is the _____ impact. The lens that asks its cost in energy, raw materials and electronic waste is the _____ impact. A person having control over their own personal data is _____. Every impact is a trade-off, so a strong answer weighs a benefit against a cost.

Three situations to judge

Three situations involving digital technology. In each case pick the response that reads it correctly.

• A company collects a lot of customer data and stores it without protecting it. How should this be judged?
• Someone logs into another person account without permission, saying they only wanted to look and changed nothing. What is the problem?
• A student copies a piece of software and a song and shares them freely online. What lens does this raise?

Explain how to judge a digital impact

A student in the year below answers impacts questions with a list of good things and bad things and scores poorly. Explain how to judge the impact of a digital technology so it earns marks.

• Explain why every impact is a trade-off, not simply good or bad
• Name the four lenses and what each one asks
• Explain why a strong answer gives a benefit and a cost together
• Explain why it helps to name who gains and who loses
• Explain how legislation fits the legal lens, described by what the law does
• Finish with the one question to ask of any digital technology