Industrial society entering information society

An information society is a society in which the creation, distribution and use of information is the main economic, social and cultural activity, and most people work with information rather than producing goods. It began in developed countries after about the 1960s–70s with computers and grew rapidly with the internet from the 1990s.

Characteristics of information society

• Information as main resource – knowledge and data, not land or machines, are the key source of wealth and power.
• Knowledge workers – most jobs are in services: IT, banking, education, health, research, media.
• ICT everywhere – computers, internet, mobile phones and cloud services connect people and businesses.
• Globalisation – instant communication, global trade, outsourcing and e-commerce.
• Networked, flexible work – remote work, gig economy, flexible hours.
• Fast change and innovation – short product life, lifelong learning needed.
• Digital divide – gap between those who have access and skills and those who do not.
• New problems – privacy, cyber crime, misinformation, information overload.

How industrial society entered into information society

1. Saturation of manufacturing – after World War II, factories in developed countries became highly automated; fewer workers were needed to produce goods, and labour moved to services.
2. Electronics revolution – the transistor (1947), integrated circuit (1958) and microprocessor (1971) made computers small and cheap.
3. Computers in business and government – mainframes and later personal computers (1980s) took over record keeping, banking, design and control.
4. Telecommunication and the internet – satellites, optical fibre, ARPANET (1969), the World Wide Web (1991) and mobile phones linked the world.
5. Growth of the service sector – finance, insurance, education, health, media and software grew larger than manufacturing in GDP and employment.
6. Education and research – mass higher education produced knowledge workers; R&D became a key investment.
7. Globalisation – industries shifted factories to low-wage countries while rich countries kept design, finance and information work.
8. Government policy – deregulation of telecom, investment in IT infrastructure and digital governance.

Agricultural  -->  Industrial  -->  Information
 (land,labour)    (machines,      (knowledge,
                   capital)        ICT, data)
                  ~1760-1950      ~1970 onward

The transition was not sudden: industry still exists, but information technology now controls and adds value to it (e.g. automated, computer-controlled factories).