Saturday 17 December 2011

Information Technology and Anthropology


Labour rules are not applied to information technology sector in India.  Thus, the employees in I .T. sector work upto 12 hours a day and some times even more. Long hours of operating computer lead to different health problems.  The I.T. employees are suffering from cervical spondalitis, back ache, pain in wrist and fingers, eye problems, constipation, piles and hemorrhoids.  Irregular food habits and sleep pattern due to work pressure and long hours of work also affect ther health in different ways.  They do not have time for regular physical excercise or even regular walking. Even at young age they are getting hypertension, diabetes and high cholesterol.

Due to work pressure and long hours of working the employees are not able to spend much time with the family members.  Due to work pressure and tension, adjustment takes to backbenches in the family life.
Some times even simple difference of opinion may lead to conforntaion and conflict among them.  Some times, even it is leading to unpleasant things among some of the couples.  


There is a great need  for anthropologists to study the problems faced by the I.T. employees both at work place and at their residence and suggest remedial measures for their well being.


Dec 24, 2011
Technical support engineers working in Indian I.T.Companies have to work in night shifts when they are giving support for American clients. The unusual sleep timings due to night shifts is also disturbing their circadian rhythm of sleep patterns and to some extent their familial relations with other family members.

Jan 24, 2012
Online social networking is picking up. People started becoming members in many social networking sites and exchaning information. Business corporates are also thinking of using this media. Anthropologists should study this media to understand different sub cultures and interpersonal relations.

Jan 27, 2012
People started using Internet more time through desktops, labtops and mobile phones for different purposes. Since all the family membrs are busily using internet, little time is left for social interaction among them.

Feb 7, 2012
Only when Anthropologists become members in social networking sites and interact with other members, they will be in a position to do participant observation among them. Then they start analysing subcultures based on the interactions among members of these social networking sites.

March 5, 2012
Information Technology employees work for long hours in their offices and come home very late in the night.  After taking dinner, again they work for a few more hours in internet in order to cope up with the available knowledge in thier domain.  Due to this, they are starved of regular minimum sleeping hours daily.  This lack of sleep every day over a long period of time will lead to other health problems. 
Information technology is revolutionizing different sectors in India. It is fetching foreign exchange to India and providing employment to Indians in India and as well as Abroad.   The employees in this sector are highly paid compared to other sectors. However, it is affecting health of the employees and also their family and marriage.

3 comments:

  1. There is a need to study how their culture influences their personality. Most of the IT professionals are new rich. The way in which they respond to day to day events are also changing.
    prolonged stress and unusual human way of living affects their personality.
    These people can be categorized in to a new sect. They are not traditionally rich. They got their life style changed overnight. Still there is a gap between them and real elite people.
    How this changes are affecting their personality and how it influences their family. What is the impact on their children.

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    Replies
    1. Social scientists particularly Anthropologists should study this phenomenon indepth to find out some solutions.

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  2. An internal biological clock regulates the timing for sleep in humans. The activity of this clock makes us sleepy at night and awake during the day. Our clock cycles with an approximately 24- hour period and is called circadian clock (from the Latin roots (circa=about and diem=day). In humans, this clock is located in the Suprachiasmatic Nucleus (SCN) of the hypothalamus in the brain. The SCN is actually a very small structure consisting of a pair of pinhead-size regions; each containing only about 10, 000 neurons out of the brain's estimated 100 billion neurons. The release of melatonin, a hormone produced by the pineal gland, is controlled by the circadian clock in the SCN. It is a naturally occurring hormone (derived from serotonin) that is both endocrine (enters the bloodstream from a pineal gland) and paracrine (signalling cell phenomenon, as from the retina when lightr is low, when the sgnal is 'time to sleep'). Its levels
    rise during the night and decline at dawn. Melatonin has been called the hormone of darkness because of this pttern. The SCN controls the timing of melatonin release; melatonin then feeds on the SCN to regulate its activity. Most of the brain receptors for melatonin are located in the SCN.

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