the information age

To talk about the ‘information age’ today is a little like talking about the ‘good old days’. For many social commentators it is considered passé. What is more popular and more current are the terms: ‘The New Economy’ and ‘The Post Modern Society’.
In my opinion, these are both a new spin on an old theme.

The New Economy
The New Economy generally refers to the dotcom boom and the push to electronic commerce. I suspect it is simply the filtering down of Information Age technology to the point that any company and the everyday person can now make some money from it.
This is also shown through figures of productivity gains from investing in information technology (IT) for the past 20 years and these have fuelled the biggest bull run on the US Stockmarket ever. The key technology here is the internet and the digitalization of money.
The motor car is often considered to epitomize the Industrial Age - not only for the production system that created it, for the way it became a consumable product and the way this has lead to the complete redesign of our cities and our lives (and our relationship to space and time).
I nominate the internet to be the information age equivalent. The New Economy is simply a reference to the opportunity that this new platform for communication and social interaction makes available for the business world.
The Post Modern Society
In a similar way, the inquiry into a Post Modern Society is a reflection of the impact of the technological change driven by electronic technologies.
I think this is best summed up by the words of Marshall McLuhan in his book ‘The Medium is the Massage’: “The medium, or process, of our time - electric technology - is reshaping and restructuring patterns of social interdependence and every aspect of our personal life. It is forcing us to reconsider and re-evaluate practically every thought, every action, and every institution formerly taken for granted. Everything is changing - you, your family, your neighborhood, your education, your job, your government, your relation to “the others.” And they’re changing dramatically.”
The enquries of the Post Modern Society are extremely important as we attempt to redefine who we are in the light of the new electronic technology and the new possibillities they offer for our lives.

Throughout this text, we will refer to the Information Age as the context for these ideas and inclusive of this is the thinking of the New Economy and the Post Modern Society.