“The medium is the message.” Marshall Mcluhan once famously heralded during the days of electronic light and electronic pathways giving way to this new river of information. New technologies constantly reflect and advise the way people conduct everyday life. It’s a push and pull with media informing habits and humans revising them to fit needs and wants. Smart technology and machine learning has brought with it changes in the way people talk, meet, have sex, eat, pay, watch and learn among other things. Let’s a take a further look at the key ways technology has changed everyday life.
Communication: The Smartphone
Smartphones have moved far beyond the cell phones of yore. They now occupy a space that is equal parts digital assistant, entertainment and tool for communication. With high resolution cameras and sophisticated encryption technologies, smartphones allow users to do everything from vlogging, learning a language, and even tuning their guitar. The advent of the app allows for more precision in learning and communication.
One such feature is augmented reality, or AR, which will allow users access to more data by using the phone’s camera to overlay information. Essentially, users can point their camera at something, let’s say an item at grocery store and learn where it comes from, ingredients, shelf life etc. This also is incredibly useful when traveling. If you want to learn more about a certain location, or are lost, you can simply pull up your screen and it will show you facts and figures about the location. Holograms and 3D smart screens are also making their way onto the market. 3D screens bring the 3D experience without glasses. Imagine playing games, talking to friends and whatever else you can imagine, but in 3D.
Banking and Payments
One of the many uses of the smartphone is also banking.The dreaded task of money management is made easier with technology. Most banks have apps that you download and use to complete everyday transactions. With the invention of mobile pay, users can simply tap their phone to make a payment. Technology is even making way for face pay, that’s right, payment by facial recognition. Online banking, digital wallets, and mobile pay are all technologies that facilitate online shopping, another huge consumer shift.
Online Shopping
With one-click payments, next day deliveries, free shipping and Cyber Mondays and Black Fridays, shopping has forever changed. Amazon has been on the forefront of this shift. Brands have even begun changing their packaging to fit Amazon’s parcel rules. Even offline, its increasingly the standard to self-checkouts, no humans needed. Shopping online allows for the ease of not having to leave the house and most places offer simple returns without having to pay if unsatisfied with the product. Online reviews make shopping that much easier. You know what you’re getting.
This brave new world is filled with new innovations and technologies that allow for easier commerce, communication, collaboration and working environments. The products coming out now are merely a taste of what is to come. With more advances there will be many new products that make life that much easier.
