INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND THE CONSUMER

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND THE CONSUMER
At different rates IT is diffusing into the home. The implications of consumer innovations can be substantial. Widespread use of cars facilitated new ways of life, with a growth of suburban living and out-of-town shopping centres, and a decline of train and bus services. The expansion of consumer IT is associated with changes in ways of working (for example, telework), playing (new home entertainment systems), shopping (teleshopping), and learning (multimedia products of various sorts, such as this encyclopedia).IT can be used in monitoring body conditions (digital thermometers, pulse meters, and blood-pressure meters are available), and in providing health and lifestyle monitoring and advice (recommending exercise levels, medical check-ups, or diets). Telephone helplines have long offered advice, counselling, and medical services; these and many other services are beginning, sometimes in rudimentary form, to be provided on the Internet.