Impact of Technological Development Writing Assignment

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Impact of Technological Development
Developments in technology over the years have had many positive and negative impacts on the society. It is now possible to collect, store and share information on people, companies and even the government and by so doing encroach on their privacies. Information technology has caused a decrease in the levels of privacy. Privacy can be defined as the act of putting up boundaries from unwanted intrusion in one’s life or their information. Privacy dictates conditions for other rights like freedom which means respecting one's privacy means you appreciate that they are free to be and do as they wish. Privacy can further be categorized into the private information, privacy of the body, personal information and information relating to a person’s possession. This paper seeks to look at the correlation between two articles written about the challenges of developing on information technology has and more specifically on the effects it has had on privacy.
One of the articles, written by Hanna Rosin talks about the effects cell phones have had on teenagers in a small town called Louisa and generally all across the country. She shares how the private lives and sensitive details and information of the teenagers was widely displayed on the internet for anyone to see through the social media platforms (Rosin, n.p). She mentions sexting, which is the sending and receiving of explicit messages via digital devices like mobile phones and computers. In Louisa County, photos of the teenagers showing their naked bodies were found plastered all over the website. On further investigation, it was found that the teenagers were fond of exchanging or sending such photos with people they wanted to impress with the intention of creating intimate relationships. However, these photos ended up being forwarded to more than one person and finally got into the wrong hands and on the website (Rosin, n.p).
The revelations had mixed reactions. Some of the kids were genuinely shocked, embarrassed and scared while others saw no wrong and in their defense they said they were doing nothing unusual. Some of the kids went further to insinuate that they were proud of their bodies and could do as they wish(Rosin, n.p). Little did they know that a minor being in possession of a naked photo is a felony which could be prosecuted under child porn laws. In addition, there is the aspect “the internet never forgets” which means that down the line when the teenagers have become adult these photos could come back to haunt them either through blackmail or loss of opportunities. In this regard, sexting or as is otherwise referred self-production has had serious implications on privacy....