10 Things That Prove How Technology Has Changed The Way We Live Today
If you are one of the lucky early millennials or even older than that, you might have experienced the convenience of going to a post office and sending handwritten letters to your friends or family members. Again, waiting for a long period for any reply or acknowledgment of receipt from them. Putting your messages, emotions, and feelings on paper using a pen and sending it through the postal medium by paying postage stamps may not be history today but definitely not a preference anymore.
Technology has been successful in replacing the pen with a keyboard, the paper with a text box on screen, the postal mail with instant messengers, and finally the acknowledgement of receipt with just a double tick. Not only is this the only use case, it has impacted our lives in many ways. Here is a list of 10 technological products and services without which life may not be the same as today.
- Smartphones
- Computers
- Televisions
- Smart Watches
- Digital Cameras
- 5G Network
- Online Services
- E-Commerce
- Automated Systems
- Artificial Intelligence
1. Smartphones
Mobile phones, primarily used for communication, have gone way beyond serving their basic purpose. Mobile phones today have become smarter, and smartphones have almost replaced typical retro-looking cell phones.
Smartphones have proven their involvement in every aspect of modern-day life. Earlier, people used to make voice calls and text messages using mobile phones, but with the advancement of technology, more features were added to mobile phones. Some of these popular features include large display screens, high-resolution cameras, enhanced memory, efficient operating systems, media players, touch screens, advanced sensors, high-speed network capability, internet connectivity options, feature-rich apps, etc.
One can use a smartphone for various purposes like audio/video calls, instant messaging, email, photo/video capturing, online payment, online learning, social media networking, and much more. The implementation of high-speed network technologies like 4G and 5G and cheaper data rates have contributed to the growth of smartphone usage.
2. Computers
When early computers were invented, they took the size of a large room and featured very low memory and computing capacity. Later, computers evolved through various generations, ranging from vacuum tubes to transistors to integrated circuits to microprocessors and finally to AI-ready machines.
Computers today come in various forms, like desktops, all-in-ones, laptops, tablets, smartphones, etc. These are used in almost every industry, like education, communication, entertainment, automobiles, medicines, aviation, space and research, banking, insurance, etc.
The development of high-performance computing devices and complex application software has enabled us to perform difficult tasks easily, without hassle, and in an efficient way. Daily tasks like writing documents, editing images or videos, browsing the internet, paying online, studying online, attending an online meeting, etc. can be easily done using a computer and the internet. Life wouldn’t have been this much easier without modern computers.
3. Televisions
Televisions today are very different from the old days. Those old CRT televisions were very bulky and power-consuming. The shape and features of these have gradually changed with the advancement of technology. Instead of CRT TVs, what you see today are mostly LED TVs, which are very slim and feature-rich. These take up less space and energy but provide more features like large screen size, high resolution, better picture quality, enhanced audio output, wider connectivity, etc.
4K TVs and Smart TVs are getting popular now-a-days because of the higher display resolution and advanced features like wireless connectivity, live streaming, OTT apps, etc. You get worthy features like immersive and real-life like picture quality with high-quality audio output, options to connect to the internet for browsing and video streaming, mirroring mobile screens, playing video games on TV, etc.
4. Smart Watches
If you compare with other product categories, you may find that this Smart Watch product is like a newcomer in the tech industry. But rapidly, it has become very popular and has been widely accepted by users because of its compactness and feature richness. In spite of being very small in size, smart watches have a plethora of features.
A typical smartwatch provides features like voice calling, text messaging, health tracking, multimedia viewing options etc. You can not only view time and date but also use these gadgets to answer your calls and messages and view photos and videos by connecting with your smartphones. These smart devices also have sensors that track your health-related activity like your heart rate, number of steps walked, duration and quality of sleeping, etc.
5. Digital Cameras
Though smartphones come with high-resolution cameras, digital cameras still have very high demand today because of their advanced features and the purpose they serve. Digital cameras are different from traditional analog cameras. DSLRs are the most popular among all digital cameras.
DSLR stands for Digital Single Lens Reflex. Traditional cameras used films to capture the photos, but digital cameras used electronic sensors to capture the photos. This makes these devices a very cost effective-option overall. DSLR cameras have bigger and better lenses and sensors, which helps in producing high-quality photos and videos. Generally, pictures taken using a DSLR have more details and sharpness when compared to pictures taken using smartphones.
6. 5G Network
We have seen many different network technologies like 2G, 3G, 4G, 5G, etc. But 5G is the fastest among those. Though we have managed to avail various online services like social media networking, online shopping, online learning, and e-governance services on 3G and 4G networks, it is the 5G technology that has enabled us for a seamless experience of these online services. The transition from the 4G to 5G user experience has become very smooth and rewarding.
The 5G network technology provides very high-speed internet connectivity, which in turn has promoted the growth of internet and IT-enabled services. We can leverage the 5G network speed to avail services like high-definition audio and video calling, online meetings, learning on digital platforms, playing video games online, social media sharing, working online, online payment, availing citizen services, etc.
7. Online services
Our lifestyle has changed with the evolution of the internet. The world has moved online long before. Now we can communicate with someone sitting far away from us with just a click of a button. Now we can buy products of our choice online from any e-commerce website by sitting at the comfort of our home, or we can avail of any citizen-centric service online using e-governance web portals. The hassle of carrying cash with us has been minimized with the wider acceptability of UPI-based payments.
Not only these, there are a plethora of examples where we use online services as alternatives to traditional offline services. The list includes but is not limited to instant messaging, electronic mail (e-mail), online meetings, online workspaces, e-learning, online shopping, online business, digital marketing, telemedicine, online video streaming (OTTs), etc.
8. E-Commerce
Gone are those days when we always had to visit a brick-and-mortar store to buy certain products. E-commerce, the phenomenon of buying and selling online, has changed the way we shop today. You can visit any e-commerce store online and view thousands of products before choosing the product of your choice.
We can check detailed specifications, price, user reviews, product images and videos, etc. to pick the right product as per our need and place an order for it. Not only that, we also get multiple options for payment, like Cash on Delivery or pre-pay via UPI, Net Banking, credit card, debit card, etc.
Another major advantage of online shopping is the huge discounts we get there as compared to offline stores. Almost all major e-commerce players offer discounts and deals on a wide range of products, starting from groceries and clothing to electronics and large appliances. E-commerce can be of different types, like B2B (business-to-business), B2C(business-to-consumer), B2E(business-to-enterprise), D2C(direct-to-consumer), C2C(consumer-to-consumer), etc.
9. Automated Systems
Earlier, we always had to visit a bank branch and stand in the queue to make cash withdrawals. But now things have changed; we can easily make cash withdrawals at any nearest ATM (Automatic Teller Machine). Not only that, using ATMs we can perform other banking transactions too.
Another example of an automated system is information kiosks installed at railway stations, in which we can query various information without visiting an enquiry counter. Another popular example would be the FasTag payment systems for vehicles for paying tolls at the toll gates. A major benefit of this automated system is that it has significantly reduced the waiting time for vehicles at toll gates.
There are tons of other examples where automated systems have made things more convenient. A fresh addition would be home automation systems like connected homes, IoT, smart speakers, dashboards, etc.
10. Artificial Intelligence
The latest and the talk of the town is AI (Artificial Intelligence). It is no longer limited to computer scientists or researchers only; it is being widely popular and used by many other professionals and industries. Be it an educational instructor, photographer, video editor, or highly skilled software developer, everyone is talking about AI. It has been a topic of debate among top political leaders across the globe. Everyone is concerned about the developments in AI technologies.
AI (Artificial Intelligence) is the capacity of machines to think and act like humans. It is done by training machines of high computing capacity with the help of ML (machine learning) technologies. A major development in the AI industry is generative AI, in which AI systems learn more from interaction with human users, and continuously train themselves to provide more accurate responses to any query in the future. The advanced AI chatbots are based on generative AI. A lot of people, mainly in the IT sector, are worried about AI taking away their jobs. While AI has made a lot of benefits, there are possibilities of misuse, like Deep Fake and other misuses by miscreants.