A self-service environment

You can now shop online, you can order anything you like on websites like Amazon and it can be delivered to your house without you even having to go anywhere. John Lewis (www.johnlewis.com) have a ‘Click and Collect button’ this means if you need an item you are ordering urgently and don’t have time to wait for it be delivered you can order it and go and pick it up in the morning form the nearest John Lewis. You can also order grocery shopping online from shops such as Tesco (www.tesco.com). This means you do not have to go out and shop yourself it can be delivered to your house or you can collect it from the shop. This is very useful for people who find it difficult to fit weekly shops into their routine.

The disadvantage of shopping online is that on websites like Amazon and EBay (www.ebay.co.uk) you don’t know whether the item you are ordering is actually like what it looks like on the screen. This is the same with grocery shopping, the items you order may not be as fresh as you would hope them to be.

You can now organise your bank accounts online. You are able to add money into your account and delete and create bank accounts online. This is very useful for people who do not have the time to go out to their bank. A disadvantage of online banking is that sometimes people create websites that look exactly like a banking website in order to trick people into putting in their details thinking it is the actual website.

This is very good for society as it makes peoples daily lives easier although it does have a big impact on high street shops as they are starting to shut down because of the fact that more and more people are beginning to order online instead of actually going out to the shops.

Mobile Technologies

3G and 4G have now become increasingly popular as people are now able to use the internet on their phones wherever they are, even whilst they are travelling.  Apps are also popular as you can now install thousands of apps. There are apps available for shopping websites, social networking sites, games etc. This means you can take a picture and instantly share it anywhere through these apps and see any comments people have said.  A disadvantage of having all these apps and access to the internet is that phone power runs out very quickly because it is all needed to power these apps and let you do all this, which is bad if you use your phone for work. Another disadvantage is that now people pay more attention to their phones instead of paying attention to other things, for example it can lead to dangerous driving as people look at their phones whilst driving, it also means people pay attention to their phone during social interactions and do not socialise properly.
Mobile technologies are also blurring the distinction between work and home as it can interfere with the work life balance. It means the work day is extended and can interfere with their ability to have their own private time and be able to relax.

You can now also use laptop’s outside of your home as you can now buy routers which allow you to access Wi-Fi anywhere or you can turn on your own personal Wi-Fi hotspot (this feature is also available on phone’s). This means you are still able to work or connect to any websites you like no matter where you are.

Virtual Communities

Social networking sites, such as Twitter (www.twitter.com), Tumblr and Facebook (www.facebook.com) allow you to talk to anyone you like with another account. Social networking sites allow you to keep in touch with people no matter where they are. This helps people to regularly talk to relatives who live far away etc.  Also, the messages you send and receive always stay there unless you delete them so you can always revisit the conversation if you want to. However, all social networking sites have a disadvantage which is cyber bullying. Some people use these websites to post things horrible things about another person and most hide it behind an anonymous profile on websites like Ask fm.  Another disadvantage is that there is not the same sense of security as there is when you are talking to someone face to face as another person has access to what you say.

YouTube (www.youtube.com) is a good advantage of communication over the internet people are able to watch various videos such as their favourite band’s music videos, youtubers who make videos, funny viral videos or how to do videos etc. People can talk to others in the comments about what they think of the video this begins to create a virtual community. They can also share the video to other social websites.  YouTube has a couple of disadvantages, as spam comments are sometimes on YouTube videos and some people comment abuse at either other commenters or the person who has actually uploaded the video.

Overall, social networking sites have both good and bad effects on society. Although you are able to communicate with your friends, family etc. and share what you love with other people there are still people who use these websites for abuse and it is difficult for the people who run the websites to target who is using for the website for bad purposes and so it is difficult to stop.

Increased business opportunities

Many business opportunities have been increased over the internet. Websites like Amazon (www.amazon.co.uk) have helped that as small business can sell their products on Amazon. Business can now pay for pop up advertisements to appear on other websites, they mostly appear on websites that are known to have a lot of users daily, this helps promote businesses online. Businesses can also set up their own websites and people can find sometimes find them just by typing in key words that relate to the website and find it that way. This helps businesses as more and more people will discover them. Social networking sites help to promote businesses, as once someone likes the page the business has created it shows their friends they have liked it and so their friends will be interested and click on it and this continues to happen.

A disadvantage of this is that more businesses grow rapidly online it will lead to high street shops having to shut down as they do not get as much business as they would do online, especially as at the moment most people go and look at products in the actual shop but then go home and order them online as they are most likely to get them cheaper and brand new than the products displayed in the shop.

Greater interaction with others and organisations

E-mail is a big advantage it helps people to communicate with others. So this helps business and organisations as they can communicate instantly and attach files if necessary. It also gives time for people to respond instead of having to respond straight away if they were in person and needed an answer before they left.  A disadvantage of E-mail is that lots of computer viruses are sent through E-mail and can cause a person's computer to break down and spread the virus to other people.

Video Conferencing allows you to see someone on a device such as a laptop, phone etc. and be able to talk to them.  Examples of this are: Skype, Face Time and Google hangout. It is fast and cheap as long as you have Wi-Fi. Video Conferencing is especially good for businesses as now they do not need to constantly keep flying over to different places to discuss things to with a company instead they can discuss it over a video chat. It is good for people who have relatives who live far away.
Disadvantages of video conferencing is that there is sometimes a time delay when speaking to another person which can lead to difficulties when trying to speak to someone. It can also be inconvenient when talking to multiple people as everyone starts talking at the same time which can lead to lags and loosing connection. 

Sharing information quickly

You can share information instantly in many different ways. You can send an E-mail to someone and it will arrive instantly to their inbox with any attachment of information you have included. This is a huge advantage for society as it means you can contact people instantly and it is also less expensive than contacting people by phone.
Blogging is another effective way of sharing information quickly, when someone reads and interesting blog they tend to share it with other people, this spreads information even faster.

RSS feeds let you know once someone has uploaded something new that you are subscribed to. RSS feeds help to share information quickly.  Information can also be distributed to phones and iPod’s such as downloadable music. You can also share information through social networking sites to share with your friends and then they will share it with their friends and so this cycle continues to happen.

A disadvantage of sharing information online is that sometimes information can be incorrect and this can affect other people especially if they are researching this information for a piece of work.

Presenting information in different ways

When looking to present information on the internet to appeal to different people you can post it in many different places on the internet, no matter what type of presentation it is whether it is text audio, video etc. You can post it on social networking sites so that your friends see it and share it with their friends and so more and more people see it. 
An advantage of presenting information is that allows teachers to post homework, revision materials etc. online, so their students can access it whenever they like and always have a copy of it stored. Another advantage is that once you have posted it this information online it is available globally this means anyone in the world is able to access it. 

You are also able share your information on blogging websites e.g. blogger (www.blogger.com) and Tumblr (www.tumblr.com)
or websites with discussion groups so people can share what they think of it.  You also have the option of being able to set up your own website. These websites have great advantages as you can also put your information into different formats such as diagrams, flowcharts etc. to make it look more interesting and different so people are interested.
A disadvantage of presenting information online is that it makes it easy for people to copy the information and use it as their own. Another disadvantage is that sometimes information can be misinterpreted, if you don't have all the background information things can be misunderstood which can lead to big arguments online which can cause some people to have to deleted things they have posted.