INTRODUCTION Nearly 3 million people across the world use the Internet every day, but what is it? For most of us, it has become necessary for our day-to-day lives but do we ever stop to think about how it has come to be and why that is so? The Internet has not been around forever and people lived full and vibrant lives before its widespread use, but what changes has the Internet brought and what changes might we expect in the future?
COURSE DESCRIPTION AND OBJECTIVES This course is an introduction to the social and technical developments that have led to today's Internet and related information and communication technologies (ICTs), and the consequences of these technologies for society and culture. The course satisfies the Society and Culture-Social Analysis GE requirement for the College of Letters & Science, and is open to all majors.
Upon satisfactory completion of this course, students should be able to:
·Summarize the main points of the historical development of Internet-related technologies; ·Summarize major social issues associated with today’s Internet, including sociotechnical and socioeconomic impact, privacy and surveillance, security, intellectual property, hyperconnectivity, access to information resources, and infrastructural issues; ·Discuss and evaluate current perspectives or points of view on these issues; ·Stay informed about Internet-related issues through a critical and reflective survey of news coverage and other general-interest media sources.