Introduction

Since the later years of the 20th century it has become commonplace for commentators to declare that we are living in an ‘information society’. In this chapter we will first consider the nature of, and criteria for, an information society. We will then look at some of the frameworks and infrastructures which support it, and some of the problems and issues which it brings with it.

Understanding information society

Information society is not a recent phenomenon. As Floridi (2014a; 2016) reminds us, it would be reasonable to say that information society emerged in the Bronze Age with the introduction of written communication and records. The contributors to Rayward (2008) identify origins of our present information society in the early 20th century. However, we tend to think of the development of information society as synonymous with the widespread use of digital information systems (Gleick, 2011, chapters 14 and 15; Floridi, 2014a; Lindgren, 2017). While information use has been a feature of all historic societies, in our current situation of hyperhistory (Floridi, 2014a), our use of information and communication technologies defines our society as one rooted in the infosphere. Put simply, as Gleick points out in our opening quotation, information is what our world runs on. There are different kinds of information societies, but a mature information society is one ‘whose members assume the digital as a foregone phenomenon’ (Floridi, 2019, 183).

Considered in more detail, however, there are a number of different criteria by which we may recognise and define information society. We will consider these in outline; for detailed analysis, see Feather (2017), Webster (2014), Floridi (2016) and Beaulieu and Leonelli (2021).