ABSTRACT
There are two main ways of looking at social change: We can focus either on major shifts of a revolutionary kind or on steady evolutionary development. The term “revolution,” which literally means the time taken by a celestial body to make a complete round in its orbit, is often used to refer to drastic, monumental (“360-degree”) change. For instance, people use “digital revolution” to refer to the shift from analog, mechanical, and electronic to digital technology. Also called “the Third Industrial Revolution”—i.e., analogous to the Agricultural Revolution, which completely changed human culture and society by taking it from a lifestyle of hunting and gathering to one of agriculture and settlement, thereby allowing an increasingly large population; and the Industrial Revolution, which completely changed manufacturing processes, from one of hand production methods to that of machines, greatly improving efficiency—the Digital Revolution started with one fundamental idea: The Internet, and it marked the beginning of the “information age.” Yet, upon further reflection, none of these three monumental revolutions was as sudden or instant as they may seem. For instance, it was the transistor, which was first introduced in 1947, that paved the way for the development of advanced digital computers decades later. After the dust settles and with the perspective of time, we are able to see more gradual and less visible social processes that lead up to what often appears to be sudden, drastic, irrevocable change. Such is the advantage of time and sociological perspective.
