QWERTY-style communication is proliferated through the popular use of smart phones, computers and laptops and computer tablets.  With touch typing being a necessary skill in the modern work force, the QWERTY keypad is familiar to most computerized societies. However, despite its popularity, in 1988, Charles A. Macarthur predicted that the great differences between typing and writing will transform the way students write. Similar effects have been found in the current student generation, where vocabulary and quality of the handwriting has diminished.

In an attempt to discover new ways for humans to convey messages, scientists have been testing a fMRI brain scanner which shows patterns of human brain activity that can be translated into thoughts and emotions. These brain-reading devices have the potential to more comprehensively allow paralysed victims to people communicate. They have also been indicated by this article to have a commercial use, and replace digital communication as we know it today.

However, the different effects that this article identifies for the brain scanner may not be the only social implications that it will have if it were produced as a tested product. In social informatics, is important to realise, like the QWERTY keyboard, the fMRI brain reader can have adverse social affects. This reflects the idea that ICTs can lead to a wide range of unpredicted and often paradoxical effects (Kling et al. 2005, Sawyer & Eschenfelder 2002). Sawyer & Eschenfelder (2002) note that “ICTs impacts are rarely isolated to a target area” (Sawyer & Eschenfelder 2002 p. 440), which is true for the fMRI because of the different sectors that it is predicted to benefit, as well as other effects that are currently unforeseen. This indicates the social significance of technology as it is highly influenced by the developments in science.