21st century has brought us enormous gifts that has made our lives easy as well as complicated. Along with those uncounted gifts, one is technology – new innovations and discoveries in tech, and how it has been remained part of our live that we are not able isolate ourselves from it.
Statista reveals that current number of mobile users stands at 4.68 billion, active internet users at 4.1 billion, Facebook users at 2.23 billion, email users at 3.7 billion, Twitter users stands at 335 million monthly worldwide. These are some of the tools has limited our lives to screens. On other hand, we have 1.2 billion cars on the roads roaming in different parts of the world that has highly decrease the shape of transportation mechanism in our lives. This number is surprisingly increasing day by day and will touch 2 billion by 2035.
How it has affected our lives depends on the individual usage of the technology and the relevant innovations and tools. I remember growing up in a rural area of Pakistan, it was a magic for me to see a telephone set that enabled us to talk to anyone around the world. The first time I used a telephone was when I talked to my cousin when I was 12 years old. Only, this innovation has brought such a dramatic change in our lives – where it is hard for people to believe that in my childhood my parents walked for hours to send a message and vice versa which is quite right when you are living in the era of digital marketing era.
There is always a dark side of any innovation along with its bright side. Technology has made our lives way easier than it were decades ago and has brought efficiency in our live, but it has also given the dark side of which has affected effectiveness – which is crucial in today’s competitive world.
We have gone digital – using emails and text messages for our daily communication both in our professional and personal life. Communication without an email is considered null and void, and it should because it has made our work very easy and way more professional. There used to be a time that we had to wait for weeks to receive or send a letter, but, now it is happening in micro-seconds. High tech innovation has provided us with the tools where one can check that my email is sent, read, and even the number of time an email has been read by the receiver.
Talking about communication and socializing, who can forget Facebook and twitter – the most famous social media platforms. Both the platforms have engaged user all over the world and has changed the dynamics of socialization and networking. We tend to take week and months to talk to each other while right now it doesn’t even take a second. It has made orientation to new culture so easy that almost all the users are somehow informed of other cultures and if someone has an interest it’s just a click away.
The way of doing businesses, work, social impact intervention, and all, has changed rigorously that it has made life hard for many who are not aware of technology or don’t have an insight into it.
Technology is helping us in saving our time, brings efficiency, save money, create more opportunities, open new avenues of business, new cultural orientation and information, easy socialization, better communication, and lot more. But, it has also given us cons such as social divide among our families, distraction, lack of focus, health and privacy issues, and many more.
Like every innovation or activity, technology has a lot of pros and cons too, but, a balanced and successful person will focus on cons too along with the pros and will try to mitigate the disadvantages that it has. We should come up with such innovations that are focused on to overcome the challenges that technology has given us. Let’s play our role – your small initiative can bring a positive change in the world.
