In President Obama’s state of the union address he mentions the changing world and economy throughout his speech. There are many ways that information technology can help change the world and help the economy for the better. In fact it has already played a major role in the way the world is structured today. Just about anything in today’s society involves a computer of some sort. From paying your bills online instantly instead of sending a money order through the mail saves time and money, to being able to communicate with associates from across the world via video conferencing and such. This is all made possible by the vast improvements in the information technology field, and this major progress is mainly of the last 20 years or so. I can only imagine how tough it must have been to record and store data back in the 70’s and better yet, to go back and find specific data. Now with one click of the mouse you can find out what Roger Maris’ batting average was in 1961, and how many times he struck out.
One of the key parts about information technology is the fact that it is constantly expanding and improving. In another 20 years we’ll be able to complete tasks; which now take us an hour, in mere minutes. Who could have imagined that you would be able to randomly meet someone all the way across the world without ever having to leave your living room? And that is just recreational use of technology. You used to walk into a diner and the waitress would write your order down, hand it to the cook who would then have to try and read the handwriting, cook the meal, then the waitress would write down what she believed to be the prices and hand you a check. The entire process could take forever depending on who your waitress was. Now she can literally just punch your order in through the computer, will get sent to a computer in the back, and prices will automatically get totaled. A much more efficient method made possible by computers, and the money saved by restaurant owners is a lot, something that would help the economy.
New computer languages are being created by programmers for programmers to create new applications and process that will make other things run more efficiently as well. It’s a never ending cycle, and the possibilities are absolutely limitless.
President Obama mentions that maintaining leadership in research and technology is crucial to America’s success and he’s absolutely right. But from a worlds stand point, competition breeds success. In order to be the best you must beat the best. So in order for a country to surpass the United States, they must step up their research, using everything that is available to them, and even using what the United States has already discovered. On the other hand if the United States wishes to remain the leader they must actively stay on top of it with more funding to make sure no other country comes out with superior technology. This is good for the world as a whole, as technology becomes more advanced, tasks become easier and run more efficiently and the economy will prosper.
There are a lot of students going to school for information technology, and the United States is changing from a country where you used to have to roll up your sleeves and strap up your boots to earn a living into a country that now you have to put your glasses on and make sure the laser on your mouse is still working. Now they may have negatively affected the economy a little bit now because of the change in philosophy so to speak, but as the world changes, people will adapt as usual and everyone will prosper. In order to know where you’re going you must know where you’ve been, and I believe the worst is behind us and the United States and world will grow much stronger from this mainly because of technology.
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