The Digital Revolution

The Digital Revolution refers to the rapid shift, beginning in the second half of the twentieth century and accelerating through the personal computer, internet and smartphone eras, from analog mechanical and electronic technology to digital computing and communication as the basis of most economic and social activity. Its key milestones include the development of the transistor and integrated circuit in the mid twentieth century, the spread of personal computers from the 1970s and 1980s onward, the emergence of the internet as a publicly accessible network in the 1990s, and the rise of smartphones and social media from the late 2000s, each expanding the speed and reach of information technology further into everyday life. Historians and economists compare its scale of disruption to the Industrial Revolution, since it has transformed how people work, communicate, trade and access information, while also raising new concerns about privacy, misinformation, the concentration of economic power in a small number of technology firms, and the displacement of jobs by automation.