EFFECT OF INFORMATION CULTURE ON SOCIETY AND BIRTH OF NEW HUMAN TYPE

Our world has undergone a radical change for the past half-century. This change especially taken form with progresses in the field of information and communication technologies has also affected meaning and importance of information. Following the dark middle ages, information, which was defined as “potency” by Bacon, has gone far beyond that definition today and become a phenomenon directly affecting, changing human life and social structures. The information phenomenon is what guides the new social structure by affecting all areas of social life, shaping technology and adapting into production, having patents and what make them the most advantageous individuals and societies of this century. Advancing cumulatively with the course of human history, information is defined as the most valuable treasure today, and it forms the basis of information culture that is based on developments in computer and communication technologies. Information is no longer a skill but has become a capital tool. Humanity, which historically has reached to the Industrial Society stage after passing through the phases of Hunter-Gatherer and Agricultural Societies, goes through a new stage of social change. The institutions and rules of the Information Society are shaped on the institutions and rules of the Industrial Society, and accordingly a new human type called "homo technologicus" (technological man) replaces the human type called "homo economicus" (economic man) in industrial societies. Today, computers, Internet and communication technologies are becoming rapidly widespread at the global level, interest in knowledge-intensive products and services is increasing with each passing day, and information-based economies and networks become widespread. The aim of this study is to focus on the relationship between information and society and to discuss in the light of national and international data how the change in nature of information and, accordingly, advancements in computer and communications technologies affect today’s social structures in a socio-economic sense and how they shape new human type (homo technologicus)