The Digital Revolution and Powershift
Ever since the first
personal computers began to make their presence felt in the late 1970s, a
silent revolution in the way nations, politics, business, culture and society
conduct themselves began to be apparent. Futuristic thinkers like Alvin Toffler
wrote about the changing contours of business in the information age and
extolled what they called the emerging Powershift that took power away from
traditional sources and dispersed it among anyone who was savvy enough to
realize the growing potential of the digital age.
Take for instance, the 2008 Presidential Election in the
United States. Barack Obama was able to win mainly because his campaign team
focused their strategies in leveraging the power of the internet and the social
media to get people out to vote and to reach out to individuals in personalized
ways. The other example is the way entrepreneurs in Asia began to realize the
importance of the internet and the digital revolution wherein they needed
minimal capital and minimal investment and all they had to do was to have a
game changing idea and put in hard work. There can be no better example of this
than this site on which you are reading this article that has leveraged the
power of the internet to reach a global audience. Indeed, just because anyone
with skills and hard work and some encouragement could harness the internet,
the renowned expert, Thomas Friedman called this the emergence of the “Flat
World” where everyone is in competition with everyone and everywhere.
The Empowering of the Citizenry
The other aspect about how
political science changed with the digital revolution can be seen in the wave
of protests that rocked the Arab countries in a movement known as the “Arab
Spring” where protestors began to coordinate their campaigns using social media
and mobile technologies. The power that these protestors had was of the
informational and digital driven variety and the fact that they succeeded in
some countries shows how the digital revolution is reshaping the world of
politics, business, and society. Apart from this, consumers across the world
are better informed and better aware of the choices that they have regarding
the goods and services that they consume. In other words, the digital age has
empowered ordinary citizens to find information about just about anything else
and this has resulted in greater knowledge for them and at the same time, more
responsible businesses who now know that their actions and activities are being
scrutinized minutely.
The Internet can be used for both good and bad
Of course, this is not to say that
the digital revolution is all positive and that there are only benefits. The
perils of instant access to information have given scope for those who are not
well meaning to manipulate the flow of information so that it suits vested
interests at the expense of the majority. Indeed, as several incidents of
misinformation and disinformation on the internet show, the potential for
mischief is as greater as the benefits that the internet delivers. Hence, the
key aspect here is that technology being value neutral has to be used in a
productive manner. What exacerbates the situation is that those who wielded
power in the status quo are not willing to cede ground to the emerging aware
and informed citizenry and hence, these status quoists are making all out
efforts to retain their positions and power. This can be seen in the way
several movements against the establishment have been thwarted by simply
denying them access to technologies that empower them.
Closing Thoughts
Finally, it needs to be mentioned that the digital age has
made consumers more aware, activists more powerful, and the governments uneasy.
Hence, the way in which the different stakeholders react to the coming
convergence of mobile technologies, the internet, and even human biology would
determine how nations, businesses, societies, and cultures would adapt or
collapse depending on the strategies that these stakeholders adopt. The choice
is with us and hence, the future would be determined according to the choices
we make.
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