Information Age
The historical period in which digital computing, telecommunications, and rapid access to information became central to economies and everyday life.
Internet: A global system of interconnected computer networks that exchange data using shared protocols. Its network infrastructure made rapid, worldwide information exchange routine.
Information theory: The mathematical study of information measurement, transmission, and limits on communication. Its tools helped engineers design reliable digital communication systems.
E-commerce: The buying and selling of goods or services through electronic networks, especially the Internet. Online markets reorganized retail, payment, and supply chains around network access.
Surveillance capitalism: An economic model that collects and analyzes personal data to predict and influence behavior for profit. Data-driven business models turned everyday digital activity into a source of commercial value.
Industrial Revolution: The transformation of production and society driven by mechanization, factories, and new energy sources. It provides a comparison with an earlier era in which machinery reshaped economic life.
Digital computer: A machine that represents and processes information using discrete values, usually binary digits. Computing made information programmable, searchable, and reproducible at scale.
Transistor: An electronic semiconductor device that amplifies or switches electrical signals. The transistor made smaller, more reliable electronic computers practical.
Digital divide: The unequal access to digital technologies and the skills and resources needed to use them. Uneven connectivity determines who can benefit from information-based services.
Attention economy: An economic framework in which human attention is scarce and organizations compete to capture it. Digital services compete for time through feeds, notifications, and personalized recommendations.
Post-industrial society: A society whose economy is dominated more by services and information work than by industrial production. This theory describes the economic restructuring often associated with the Information Age.