In 1982, Alexander Kingpublished his article “Better or Worse: The Benefits and Risks of InformationTechnology”. At that time, information technology (IT) was still a very new phrasefor the public and had just started to influence the world. King analyzed andpredicted the future of IT in his article, stated, “this new complex oftechnological developments, as has been the case with most human exploitationof technological advances since the beginning of history, carries with it bothenormous possibilities for the betterment of human life and also dangers whichcan, as yet, be only dimly perceived and impossible to place in perspective.”Twenty years has passed. Today, we can, to some extent, try to take a look atwhat has happened in the recent 20 years to IT development and make a decisionon if King’s predictions were right or not. The development of IT was somewhatdifferent from country to country because of the cultural, political andeconomic reasons. I would like to research into how IT has changed in China asan example.

In the last 20 years, China created an economicmiracle. China GDP was the 10^th in the world in 1990 and jumped upto the 2^nd in 2015. The fast development was greatly related to theglobal computer revolution and is a typical example of the positive aspects ofIT. IT changed China and China proved how IT changed in the recent 20 years.China did very little on the science and technology of IT, but is one of thebest in IT application. The application of IT transformed “work and living tothe benefit of the individual and society”. (King) The high degree ofautomation enabled by the microprocessor technology greatly increased theproductivity, improved the services of health, education and etc., and boostedthe material standard of living for Chinese. The applications of integratedcircuit technology also had dramatic changes in the last 20 years in China.Domestic appliances such as programmed washing machines, dish-washers,electronic mail, automatic translation and interpretation, computer-aidededucation, new information and communication systems……so on so forth, cannoteven be imagined 20 years ago, but now they are all in reality.

As for the negative aspects King estimated,China is experiencing most of them more and more significantly. Big cities likeShanghai and Beijing completely rely on technological systems. Even a power cutcan put the cities in big danger. “More serious, perhaps is the threat ofisolation and alienation which a microelectronics culture could generate.”(King) Twenty years ago, family sat together chatting happily with each otherface to face; now, family sat together chatting happily with each other by “WeChat”, no need to see each other’s face, only need to press buttons on iphone.But for the unemployment IT might bring to the society, China was an exception.IT development in the world created tremendous employment opportunities forChinese. Almost everything was made in China and the electrical industry is oneof the most popular sector young people love to join in.

So, IT developed dramatically in the last 20years in China. It provided a lot of opportunities for Chinese people and alsobrought potential risks for the culture and society. King was absolutely right.