SOCIETAL & CULTURAL TRENDS

Trends?
Workplace
Technological
Societal

What is a trend and what is its importance?

A general direction in which something is developing or changing. It is important as it will help shape the future.

What are some Technological Trends for 2012?

• e-learning
• New technologically advanced mobile phones and tablets i.e smart phones
• Payment methods
• Methods of teaching 
• Modern vehicles are smaller to enhance fuel economy
• Electric and electric vehicles are becoming more common
• Social Media
• Cloud computing
• Digital TV
• Online trading

The Top 5 Technology trends for 2012 - (CNN, 2011)

1. Touch computing
2. Social gestures- "frictionless sharing" relevant APP
3. Near field communication (NFC) and mobile payments- 
4. Flexible Screens- bendible interfaces
5. Voice Control- Send text messages, create reminders, search the web

Minaturisation- 

• Making things smaller

Technological Trends-

• System Integration- Combining many systems into one
• Automisation- Making things automatic

5 Workplace Trends

1. The Continuing Distribution of Organisations

Collaborative decisions wanted, utilize technology for communication , outsourcing, work distribution outsourced, work task distributed.

2. The Availability of Enabling Technologies and Social Collaboration Tools

Work collaboration tools i.e video and audio conferencing, data sharing, instant messaging,

Social media collaboration tools i.e internet forums, weblogs, blogs, wiki's, podcasts

3. The Coming Shortage of Skilled Workers

4. The Demand for More Work Flexibilty

5. Pressure for More Sustainable Organisations and Workstyles

What are some current Societal Trends?

• Legalisation of same sex marriage
• Globalisation
• English becoming the dominant language
• Kiwi's moving to Australia "brain-drain"

News Article Exercise: Economists fret as petrol price soars

Identify the trend: 

• Fuel prices increase to its highest prices ever

Social Impact of the trend: 

• Household spending
• Financial recovery
• Gull maintains fuel prices at 8c to 13c cheaper than other competitors, helps people
• Cost of living increases
• Lean towards saving fuel or fuel exploration
• General cost of everything will go up as fuel is a key commodity

HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENTS IN SOCIETY

INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION

The biggest phase for industrial development was the industrial Revolution which took place from 1750-1850. What were the most significant developments of the industrial revolution?

Techological impacts of the industrial revolution:

The Machine Age
- The construction of large furnaces running on coke
- The production of Pin-Making machinery
- Iron Smelting made easier
- Factory productivity increased with the assistance of machinery
- Transport systems introduced to enhance trading opportunities

Social impacts of the industrial revolution:

- The invention of electricity
- Urbanisation
- Working class employed in factories
- Social stucture/classes were becoming more defined
- Child labour common due to being relatively cheap
- Unions were introduced to:

• Fight for rights
• Increase pay and wages
• Improve working conditions
• Improve living conditions

- Strikes were common as a result of labour unions
- Laws and constitutions introduced due to immoral employment practices
- Diseases were on a rise due to over crowding
- Organisation of labour in factories

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FIRST LECTURE

The lesson began with an introduction to the subject of "Societal Context", and the lecturer Rashika Sharma. She gained class attention by placing us into groups assigning each group an interactive activity. This worked as a great ice breaker as it woke us up and it got our brains thinking. We were given a scenario where we were charged as developers to perform a feasibility study on a proposed electric train setup in Auckland. As a group our task was to develop key points for consideration in a feasibility study. After gathering these points we went on to collaborate our ideas in order to produce viable solutions.The following is the result of our class discussion: 

Feasibility Study

1. Demand - Determine whether people need or want it
2. Determine the budget - i.e Government ,tax payer, people
3. Environment - Sustainable development
4. History - What has happened in the past
5. Labour - Workforce required for the job
6. Time constraints
7. Survey/research - Consider population of the area
8. Planning process - i.e Location
9. Legislation - i.e Resource consent
10. Research the social impact

Later we are given another task to get our train of thought thinking. Here we are asked to reform our groups and to decide on a technology for discussion. We were then presented with a chain of questions reflecting on the relationship between the technology and society. The following are the results of our group discussion.

Computers

Why was the technology developed?

Computers were made to do the very tedious computations of everyday life and business. The first calculators performed computations in seconds that would take someone minutes if not hours to do. For instance, calculations for NASA entry and exit trajectories would take days or even weeks to calculate by hand and the first mainframe computers would do the calculations in minutes.

What and who are the technology drivers?

Consumers (people) drive the demand for the technology and so they can be considered the main drivers. To be precise, it is the want or desire of people to have this technology is what helps the technology.

What have been its broad social, political, economic and environmental impact?

Computers have changed the way people relate to one another and their living environment, as well as how humans organize their work, their communities, and their time. Society, in turn, has influenced the development of computers through the needs people have for processing information.

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