The main goal of technology is to improve the quality of our lives. It strives to automate routine activities and simplify more complex tasks. In the past couple of years, we have started to feel the improvements on an almost daily basis.
Not everyone is a tech-savvy person, nor does everyone need to be. There is nothing wrong with that, and it’s not a requirement for taking advantage of improvements in technology. This article will list some of the changes that we all feel every day.
Faster Communication
Improving the way we convey messages has been at the forefront of technological advancement since the beginning. In the pre-industrial times of empires and continent-wide kingdoms, leaders urged the brightest minds at their disposal to invent faster and more reliable ways to send information from point A to point B.
Thanks to their efforts, we had the telegraph, then the phone, and finally the internet. The average child in the 21st century can type a message for their friend living a thousand miles away, and the message will arrive in less than a second.
That speed of communication encourages social and economic growth. We can see this most clearly with the rapid growth of the internet.
Home Entertainment
To access news and entertainment, we would previously have to visit a cinema or go to a shop to buy newspapers and magazines. We would be forced out into the world to but what we needed to live. These days we can order almost everything online and have it delivered. There might be no reason to leave the house for days at a time.
As we speak, the average home of a contemporary American is a veritable entertainment center. You can stream a movie the moment you get out of bed, or you could hook up to the net via a PlayStation and play a game with your friends. Never before has so much been available to us inside our four walls.
Our Perception of Money
Did you know that US President, Andrew Jackson only believed in coins and did everything in his power to put an end to banks and paper money? Imagine his confusion today if he visited a shopping mall. These days, even paper money is obsolete for most transactions. We use digital cash to make almost all our purchases.
Attempts to make money less physical and more abstract are something we are used to. We trust our money, and most of us have no complaints about the technology. Everybody loves having money, but most people don’t need to have big piles of it stashed in their mattress.
Banking cards, for example, changed the way we think of money. The most popular method of electronic payments, it is applicable in almost every situation. Shopping, dinner dates, and even laundromats abandoned coins for technologies like Shinepay and others.
Convenient Travel
Traveling abroad brings to mind people lying on a palm-fringed, deserted beach with a cocktail in their hands. While technology certainly made journeying to far-off paradises more attainable, it is another travel revolution that has really changed our lives.
Short-distance traveling is essential for the lives of many, especially those of us who commute to the office each day. Modern trains and buses are faster than their predecessors and more reliable with modern electronic motors.
Taxi companies like Uber and Lift have enabled us to call a cab from anywhere. These tech companies have reduced the prices of the whole private hire vehicle industry. No third party companies are required to organize a taxi so no fees are added to your bill.
Changes for the Better
In the past decade or two, technology has changed our lives almost beyond recognition. Messages are bouncing around the world in mere seconds, and modern electric, self-driving cars may not be too far off.
Some of these changes have been in the development stages for years. How we understand money is a good example of our perceptions have evolved along with the technology over the years.
We will continue to adopt new technologies and adapt our lives accordingly. It is exciting to speculate about what our lives will be like in another 20 years.