Over the past 40 years, IT has influenced and really changed the way we live out lives. It’s fair to say that we love our gadgets; with most of us owning a mobile phone, iPod, laptop or MP3. Overall you’d say you enjoyed and were happy with the what IT has done to your life. However, there are some people that believe IT has caused lives to be more complicated, and that many people would not be able to live their lives without them.

Smaller, village shops having to close because more people are choosing to shop online. This mean many people are loosing their livelihood. People may become less able to communicate with each other face to face, and turn to staying inside and talking over the internet.

When bad weather occurs, getting out of the house could be especially difficult if you live in a remote area. The ability to use social networks would come in very handy. Social networks such as Skype have now made it possible to communicate with each other around the world easily. These network sites are also cheaper than phoning people as roaming charges can be expensive. We now have the ability to order a number of products offline with the ease of them being delivered to your house. This could be useful if you were disabled.

Many jobs have also been lost, and many employees have had to be retrained which is very expensive. Quicker, cheaper and more reliable machines have now taken over the roles of many jobs.

It is now much easier for people to work from home, making life easier for disabled people or people with children. Companies are now able to get the best possible person for the job because they can choose people from a wider range. More roles and more exciting jobs created.

The surge in technology comes at a price. We now use more electricity that adds to global warming and is expensive. The disposal of the old equipment is governed by WEEE (Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive) – manufacturers of electrical equipment are required to provide the owners with a way of disposing of the equipment that their new product is replacing. Ever wondered where all the old equipment goes? If something does not work or is not needed anymore, we tend to just throw them away which is not very sustainable.

Plagiarism is a big problem, mainly in schools, where students copy and paste information from the web into a document without changing the words. When you buy any of these, the law stops you from: Copying it and giving it to a friend or selling them Making copies at all. Using illegal programmes computers. Renting the software to your friends. The Copyright, Designs and Patents Act (1998) this protects the creators and artists of music, books, videos and software.

Data Protection Act. This protects the personal information of living people. There is always a risk of your privacy being invaded when you store all your details on your computer. Nearly everything you do is recorded on a computer – CCTV, mobile phone usage, internet searches, when you visit the hospital, what you buy online, any contact with the police and much, much more.

1. Data must be collected and used fairly and inside the law. 2. It must only be held and used for the reasons given to the Information Commissioner. 3. Data can only be used for the reason of which it was collected. 4. The information held must be related and not too much. 5. It must be right and be kept up to date. 6. It must not be kept longer than is needed for the purpose 7. The information must be kept safe and secure. This means keeping the information backed up and away from any unauthorised access. 8. The files may not be transferred outside of the European Economic Area unless the country that the data is being sent to has a fitting data protection law. If you would like more information, visit: The Data Protection Act (1998) is a law made to protect personal data that’s kept on computers or in an organised system. By law any company that stores information on people must register with the Information Commissioner and must follow the 8 Principles of the Data Protection Act which are:

Access computer material without the owner saying so, e.g. looking at someone else's files. Access computer files etc without being allowed with the idea to do further illegal offences, e.g. hacking into the bank's computer and wanting to increase the amount in your account. Change computer data without being allowed, e.g. writing a virus to destroy someone else's data, or changing accounts. The Computer Misuse Act (1990) aims to keep your personal information safe and has made it against the law to:

Access Some people live too far away from telephone masts, find cable too expensive or the companies find it too expensive to lay down cables. These are some reasons not everyone in the UK can get broadband access. Price Not everyone can afford the expenses of paying for broadband, never mind having to buy the computers, software and programmes. Age A lot more services are becoming virtual. And not everyone knows how to access and navigate the internet, eg., elderly people who grew up in a different generation.

Literacy The majority of the internet has text in it, which means in order to use the internet to full fully, you must be able to read and write. Access For the most part, we have easy access to the internet and technology, but not everyone has the same access. Because we are relying more on technology, the divide between technology is getting bigger and bigger. Lots of governments are trying to help by improving access for children in developing world.

Uganda was one of the first countries in sub-Saharan Africa to gain full Internet connectivity. 3.2 million (2009) internet users in Uganda. 51,444,000 (2009) internet users in England Uganda Broadcasting Corporation runs radio and television networks. Uganda first started running stations in the 1990s. By 2007 there were nearly 150 radio and 35 TV stations, mostly based in and around Kampala. Uganda is not as developed as England, and do not have all the technology luxuries we have.