Does the use of technology affect decision-making in Latin America?

We have seen the crucial role played by the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) around the world. From leaks to wikileaks up to civil organizations of the Arab Spring, governments around the world have had to make a greater emphasis on citizen voices expressed through social networks, who exercise an active citizenship every day through pictures, videos, and words, expressing themselves from their homes, the streets of their community, or their work space.  Those voices that were heard only during electoral season are now more common every day regarding any event deemed to impact an individual who, through ICT, can be heard at the same time that he can multiply his voice in all those that agree with him.

Government decisions have become transparent to the extent that ICT have improved control mechanisms. The situation has not yet reached its full potential. In large parts of the world there are still many people without access to these technologies, because the positive aspects of globalization have not been the same for everyone. However, it is thanks to these technologies that there is a greater awareness of this issue and many other things that affect us locally and globally. This process of awareness of citizens is crucial regarding to the processes of nation building and cannot be ignored by governments, since informed citizens are demanding and auditing citizens.

This is the case in Latin America where many of the indicators of human development go hand by hand with technology access.  Particularly ICT are able to create a more responsible and participatory citizenship, but also more critical of those in power. The process is slow, but definitely headed in the right direction. Governments are not only subject to the control of Congress but also of citizenship, they are increasingly concerned not only about communicating their actions through the use of ICT, but also they tend to monitor the popularity of their measures through the use of these technologies. The digital gap, as it is usually called the division between those with access to technology and those who don’t, it is decreasing more and more to the extent that more people may have access to technology to express themselves, and decision makers will have to adjust to the new information societies.