We live in a digital society which has significantly changed the information landscape affecting every aspect of our lives. The current wave of technological innovation is part of the context in which social work students, practitioners and service users and carers operate. Technology can improve the quality of our lives and learning and can potentially enrich social work practice but that depends on our active involvement. It will not happen without social workers moulding technology developments and uses to their own and service users' needs. However, the technology can also pose challenges and dangers.

This chapter outlines some of the major issues when thinking about the digital society from a social work perspective.