Information

    THE INFORMATION REVOLUTION

The most important commodity today is not rice or coffee, television or the motorcycle. The most important commodity today is information. In the 14^th century the largest library in the world had about 1400 books. In the 20^th century about 1000 books are published every week in English!

We are surrounded by information. Every morning, we wake up listening to information from the radio. This information tells us what is happening in Indonesia and in the world. It also gives us information on things we might like to buy and places we might like to visit.

When we leave our house to go to work we see many signs, notices and adverts along the street. We buy a newspaper and read more information. We talk to other people aabout the information we read.”Did you read about the fire in Glodok yesterday?” “Yes. Wasn’t it terrible1”

At work we read manuals and reports from other deparments. We talk to our colleagues about how to solve problems aat work. All day, we give information and we get information.

At night, at home, we watch TV. We get more information about what is happening around us. We might learn something about animals in Africa or the people in Nepal. If we have a computer, we can join the Internet and get information on anything we want.

There is a saying in English, ‘Knowledge is power’. It’s true. That’s why school is important. A good school can teach you how to get knowledge and how to use it.