The Information Age

It is commonly believed that the Industrial Age was supplanted by the Information Age in the late 20th century A.D., a view that became common after the Revolutions of 1989, when much of the Third World economy was still based on manufacturing, although mobile phones were commonplace even in the poorest of African countries, enabling access to global information networks. Even though many developing countries remaind largely industrial, the Information Age was increasingly on the ground by the late 20th century. The Information Age was also characterized by the digitalization of information and communication systems, and the widespread adoption of computing devices — personal, mainframe, and embedded systems. It encompasses the era in which information and data are produced, shared, and accessed at an unprecedented rate due to the proliferation of computers, the internet, and other technological innovations.