Impacts of the use of IT

1. Impacts of the use of IT -Social network sites This is a site that lets you post messages, upload pictures and stories on your own personal page. You can also include favourite video clips along with your ‘likes’. Further more you can post comments and messages to other people’s page and your own page. If you make any changes to your page it will come up as ‘news’ to your friends. Some of the sites also contain links to your favourite music artist or online games and other apps. Social networking is all about the constant exchange of personal information, gossip and news. Some social networking sites are a little different such as twitter for example you can only type up to 140 character comment post but still its very good to keep up with news with the people of your interest. To join a social network, you have to provide some personal information. This is called your ‘personal profile’. The social impact of social networking sites is that its very popular around the world, here are some advantages: You do not need particular technical skill to create a personal page It is usually free Very easy to stay in contact with people of similar interests Very easy to contact potential new friends The site makes it simpler to get in touch with long-lost friends You can post interesting things about yourself and your achievements online

2. Economic -Shopping online • Most things that are available on the highs street or in shopping centres can also be found online. For example, supermarkets offer home delivery of goods ordered through their website. -Buying goods online 1. The process for buying goods online commonly involves: 2. browsing through the online catalogue 3. adding items to the virtual basket 4. visiting a virtual checkout 5. choosing payment and delivery method 6. order confirmation 7. shipping confirmation (via email or sms) -Advantages • Convenience - shop from any computer with an Internet connection any time while avoiding the need to travel, pay for parking, queue in-store etc. • Greater variety - more shops online than any high street or shopping centre. • Cheaper goods - increased competition between retailers (for some on a global scale) brings down prices. • Accessibility - those with a disability that limits their mobility can choose to have goods delivered. • Comparability - using the Internet it's easy to research products or services very thoroughly, comparing prices and product details in order to get the best deal. -Disadvantages • security concerns surrounding payment by credit card over the Internet • not being able to physically inspect the goods before purchase • goods getting damaged during transport • goods not arriving in time or at all • concerns over what information retailers are storing about customers, e.g. buying habits

3. Threats • There are many different threats due to the use of IT. Cyber bulling is one which affects many peoples life’s daily. You have people who go on websites to try and harm you and cause trouble. There are also people who like to intimidate and impersonate others. If this happens then you should report them and try and resolve the problem. Most of the social networking websites including Facebook now have report features. Further more, if you are chatting to someone on Windows Live Messenger or other communication software and they are upsetting, offending or bullying you then there is a button to block them. This way is much faster and easier to stop the specific person from communicating to you. But they will know that you blocked them. Other people are out there who try to fraud you out of your money. This is related to phishing scams that are a major threat. These scams are sent to your inbox on your email account. These emails claim that they are a real business or company however this is false. These emails are used to get hold of your bank account details along with other personal information. Its recommended to delete these emails to prevent this from happening. Spam is also a threat, this is another problem related to email. Spam emails are not important and can be unsafe or contain viruses. However most email websites including Hotmail have junk folders that filter spam mail and can be easily deleted by a click of a button. here are also many viruses that can affect your computer. All viruses affect your computer in different ways. The most well known viruses are Trojans and Internet Worms. There is also Spyware and password checkers to get hold of peoples passwords on different accounts. Most viruses make loading times slower and can even get hold of your provide information. However if you have a anti-virus installed on your computer and you do a full scan then you should be able to remove these viruses without any problems and your computer will be running at its normal speeds again.