The transformative impact of ICTs is today most frequently associated to their digital dimension. While the importance of the digital dimension is unquestioned, less attention is often attributed to the information and communication aspects: as unique human dimensions, information and communication contribute to create the uniqueness of ICTs transformative potential on society. The aim of this reflection is to demonstrate why, and in what ways, the impact of ICTs on society is qualitatively distinct—and far more profound—than that of other transformative or enabling technologies. From a socio‑cultural perspective, the discussion will highlight some of the most distinctive features of ICTs, particularly those that reach into the very foundations of how societies think, communicate, and organize themselves.
ICTs are technologies dealing with, and acting upon, information and communication. For the context of this article we will not refer to ICTs meaning only digital technologies – as we would expect following the most common current use of the term. The word ICT will be used here in broader sense, in line with the tradition of media, internet and communication studies. With the term ICTs we will refer therefore to the comprehensive set of human innovations that across history have been designed to extend the human capacity to relate to information and communication, facilitating the exchange of information and communication between individuals, groups, and societies, and shaping thus cognition and culture and the evolution of civilizations.
ICTs allowed of further enhancing a unique human capacity: that of communicating through symbols (in particular, through language). They did so by enabling humans to transcend the limitations of direct, immediate, face-to-face communication and organic memory, allowing to create, preserve, process, manipulate, store, transmit and share such symbolic content and meaning. They range from early symbolic systems – such as writing, printing, radio and telegraphy – to contemporary digital networks and computational systems, which represent the latest stage in a long historical continuum.
This definition of ICT, therefore, revolves around the function of technology as mediators or magnifiers of human symbolic activity, rather pointing to the underlying technical substrate that enables the transmission of this activity – whether mechanical, electrical, or digital.
All technologies extend the horizon of what is doable. However, there are technologies with higher transformative impact on society than others. General-purpose technologies for example – such as steam engine, electrification, nanotechnology, and also Information and Communication Technologies – are technologies with a broad application and transformative potential across many sectors, able to structurally reshaping entire economies and societies, transforming the ways in which goods are produced, services are delivered, and people interact.
General-purpose technologies typically expand the horizon of what is possible by enhancing human mastery over nature. They transform human existence, including survival possibilities, by altering the physical environment the material conditions under which production, mobility, energy use, or healthcare happen. Steam power mechanized production, electricity illuminated cities, and the combustion engine compressed space through rapid mobility.
If technologies transform society, ICTs transform it a bit more, a bit deeper. The way ICTs transform society, is substantiallydifferent than that of other types of technologies, in scope and intensity of the impact, and therefore in the type of consequences entailed. In what, so ICTs differ from the other types of general-purpose technologies?
General purpose technologies extend human capabilities in the material world (energy systems power things; transportation moves things), but are domain-specific, and leave the symbolic and relational order of society relatively intact – or only indirectly influenced.
What distinguishes ICTs from other technologies instead is its role of mediator of human symbolic activity, and the capacity to influence and directly reorganize the symbolic dimension in which and through which humans organize their social and cultural worlds.
The mechanisms at the basis of the unique transformative power of ICTs on reality depends on its action at the symbolic level; in such a way, ICTs constitute a founding infrastructure for the development of human civilization, becoming therefore critical to reshaping how society works.
ICTs uniquely operate in the realm of these symbolic levels. This comprises both the level of contents we share – information – and the set of modalities and media through which the exchange of information happens, constituted by mediation of codes, sensorial capabilities, channels, shapes, modalities, processes. Such mediating dimensions are not neutral: they constitute communication layers made of specific symbolic choices and representations, which carry and generate meanings themselves.
Therefore, by acting upon these mediation levels – changing the way information is produced, organised, accessed, circulated and exchanged, or the ways people connect, or through enabling and enhancing some sensorial possibilities over others – ICTs directly intervene in how we think, interact, organize society, interpret contents, and give meaning to human activity itself.
Beside transmitting information, therefore, ICTs also redefine the frameworks through which human societies perceive, attribute meaning to reality, and create a shared understanding of reality. ICTs contribute to influence collective imaginary, shaping the boundaries of what people considers normal, socially acceptable or reprovable; what people see as better lives or good society, including how individuals build their identity make daily choices.
Meta-description and meta-infrastructure for human activities. Unlike other technologies that serve specific domains, ICTs transform all systems at once by acting on the very codes and languages through which we communicate. As such, ICTs are meta-technologies: they mediate, translate, and enable every sphere of life, transforming technological and social systems—from politics and economics to culture, science, and personal identity.
Reflexive acceleration of technological development: Uniquely, ICT can be used to design, improve, and create new ICT systems, accelerate their own development and the development of other technologies, in an accelerating feedback loops of technological development that other technologies cannot replicate. For example, computational systems now design better computational systems and optimize other technologies. This reflexive capacity creates exponential rather than linear technological development patterns.
Exponential and global spreading. Unlike material infrastructures, ICTs – from telephone to internet, from smartphone to AI – spread globally much quicker, making their transformation effects widely spread in a shorter time-frame.
ICTs generate cultural changes with a unique intensity of transformation, especially at the socio-cultural and cognitive level, since it acts upon dynamics that are foundational to the functioning of our human and societal nature. For example, ICTs influence the modalities and conditions for the construction of knowledge; the boundaries of what constitutes a social community or of how individual identity is formed; the structures supporting social relations and social coordination; power relations and decision-making mechanisms between individuals, institutions, and states. Some of these dimensions will be now described with more detail.
Individual and Collective Cognition. Information and communication technologies fundamentally reshape how humans think, remember, process and access information across time and space, make decision and even form memories. Currently, the externalization of memory through digital devices marks a profound shift in human cognition. Search engines, databases, and AI assistants increasingly act as partners in thought, altering both individual consciousness and collective memory.
Individual Identity, Relationships, and Social structures. ICTs mediate human interaction in ways that fundamentally reshape identity and social organization. They enable new forms of intimacy, community, and collaboration that transcend geography, giving rise to novel social structures and ways of being together. Remote work, online communities, and experiments in digital democracy illustrate how communication technologies can reorganize collective life. At the same time, identity itself is reconfigured: digital personas, social media profiles, and algorithmically mediated visibility redefine how individuals present themselves and relate to others.
Power relations. ICTs have reconfigured power by transforming access and control of information. On one hand, they democratize content creation and distribution, opening opportunities to challenge traditional authorities. On the other, they concentrate unprecedented power in new actors—states, platform monopolies, global corporations—through capabilities such as surveillance, data extraction, and algorithmic control. These shifts play out at multiple levels: between citizens and governments, consumers and companies, and across global regions marked by digital divides and geopolitical competition over infrastructures like 5G, 6G, and AI. While other technologies have also redistributed power, ICTs are distinct in that they mediate nearly every other system—finance, health, transport, culture—making them foundational to the organization of contemporary society.
Innovation in the field of ICTs cannot be treated as just another sectoral business. Information and communication technologies transform human life unlike any other innovation. They are not merely tools for efficiency or productivity, but infrastructures that shape how societies think, organize, and relate. While general-purpose technologies extend what humans can do in the world, ICTs go further: heir influence extends simultaneously across politics, economy, culture, science, and personal life. In this sense, choices made about ICTs are not neutral: they actively determine how societies understand themselves, how citizens interact, and how collective life is organized.
Recognising this distinct and profound impact is essential for both industry and policymakers. Decisions about the development and governance of ICTs are, in effect, decisions about the future architecture of society itself and cannot be left only to market dynamics or narrow technical considerations alone. Steering these technologies requires a renewed awareness of their transformative potential and a deliberate alignment with the values we wish to embed in tomorrow’s societies.
Assessment of technology impact on privacy
Education
