Information Age  

From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia

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The Information Age (also known as the Computer Age, Digital Age, or New Media Age) is a period in human history characterized by the shift from traditional industry that the industrial revolution brought through industrialization, to an economy based on information computerization. The onset of the Information Age is associated with the Digital Revolution, just as the Industrial Revolution marked the onset of the Industrial Age.

Innovations

• Analytical Engine – draft – 1837
• Stereoscope – 1849
• Microphotography developed by John Benjamin Dancer in 1851.
• Microform information storage technology uses microphotography to achieve commercial viability in the 1920s.
• Z3 – first programmable general-purpose digital computer – 1941
• Atanasoff–Berry Computer – electronic digital computer – 1942
• Colossus computer – first programmable, digital, electronic computer – 1943
• ENIAC general purpose electronic digital computer – 1946
• The mathematical framework of the theory of information – 1948
• Transistor – mark in the electronic development – 1947
• The formulation of the Hamming code – 1950
• Earliest form of the Internet – 1969
• Electronic paper – 1970s
• Email – 1971
• Home video game consoles – 1972, widespread public application 1985
• Personal computer – 1974, widespread public application early 1980s
• Laptop – 1980s, widespread public application 1990s
• World Wide Web – 1989, widespread public application mid-1990s
• PDA – 1990s
• Online gaming communities – 1990s, widespread public application early 2000s
• Mobile phones – 1984, widespread public application late 1990s and early 2000s
• Digital camera and webcams 1980s mainstreamed 2000s
• Digital television 1990s, widespread public application 2000s (Digital television transition 2006-)
• Broadband mainstreamed 2000s and 2010s
• Wireless networking late 1990s
• GPS mainstreamed mid-2000s
• Satellite radio – circa 2001
• Smartphones widespread public application late 2000s and early-mid-2010s
• Tablet PCs 1990s (mainstream in 2010s)

See also

• Information
• Information revolution
• Internet governance
• Digital transformation
• Digital dark age
• Digital divide
• Digital Phobic
• Digital addict
• The Hacker Ethic
• New media
• Social Age
• The Zeitgeist Movement
• The Venus Project
• Digital detox