Top 5 areas of life that technology has greatly improved
No one can deny that technology over the last two decades has grown to become the central nervous system of human existence. As a matter of fact, everything you are doing right now is tech-dependent: you are definitely reading this from a tech device which is probably using a Wi-Fi router to connect to the internet.
The food we eat, the clothes we wear, the shopping we make, and literally everything we do on a daily basis today has some traces of tech innovation in it. The smartphone technology, for example, has changed how kids play, how businesses work, how people communicate, and how people worship.
The millennials no longer carry Bibles to church – they have Bible apps on their phones. Millions of people are currently working online thanks to technology. The phone messaging apps are almost edging out the traditional mobile messaging services.
The influence of Artificial Intelligence, driverless cars and such, is growing faster than ever. All these prove that technology is among the biggest revolutions in the history of mankind.
In this article, we will highlight some of the areas that have been greatly influenced by tech innovations, but right now let’s direct our focus towards a very important element that manifests the technological innovation: Apps.
How are apps shaping the technological innovation
Mobile apps on our tablets and smartphones have made both social and work-related interactions more fruitful and affordable. Vulnerable categories of people such as the disabled can now interact with each other on WhatsApp groups, share their daily ordeals, and together form a bigger voice that the society finds impossible to neglect.
Through the variety of social networking apps, like-minded business people are able to reach out to each other, sometimes people from different cultural and geographical dictates, and form alliances for their common good giving birth to successful cooperations.
That’s not to mention how easy google maps has made navigation a piece of cake, or how iTunes has made music streaming convenient, and how apps such as Xander have made it easy for people to share images and video clips for free.
The bottom line: there is an aggressive competition happening between different app development companyempires. Mobile apps have made life significantly easier already and with more new apps mushrooming day after the other, there is no doubt that the future of technology is entirely dependent on them.
Apps will soon make the “Education for All” dream a reality. They will be crucial in sensitizing people on key global discussions such as environmental conservation and clean energy, and many more. That said, let’s now delve deeper and look at the top five areas that technology has greatly improved.
Social Communication
One of the greatest platforms of modern technology is the social media, particularly the social media apps that are supported by Android and iOS devices. Thanks to smartphone apps such as Twitter, WhatsApp, Facebook, and Instagram, people now get real-time updates of everything that happens across the world.
According to the Reuters Institute Digital News Report, almost 70% of today’s global population access information through either email, social media, smartphone apps, or the online news outlets, leaving only about 30% to the traditional, mainstream media. Some mainstream media companies are now investing heavily in modern communication technology as a way of keeping tabs with the ever-growing social media influence.
The Travel Industry
Booking air/bus/train tickets, making hotel reservations, accessing hotel services, and even contacting tour guides over the phone or online is now possible thanks to technological advancements. E-payments have made traveling a lot easier because, with apps such as Apple Pay and Samsung Pay, you don’t have to carry credit cards or solid cash for your trip. The apps are convenient and above all, eliminate the risks of credit card fraud and cash theft. Music streaming apps such as Spotify and iTunes, on the other hand, eliminate the need for bulky music playing devices while e-books eliminate the need for physical books during your travels.
All these new technologies have made traveling really convenient and fun. Before we get to the third industry, let’s revisit the two industries above and see how translation technology has impacted on both of them. First of all, voice translation apps have greatly increased the available translated data, both online and offline, thus making communication easy and effective.
You can, for example, read and understand an article that was originally written in Spanish with the help of Google Translator. This tool translates to up to 32 languages in speech-to-speech content and 30 languages in real-time video content. Other apps such as Duolingo, SayHi, WayGo, and iTranslate if combined they can teach over 100 different languages without charging you a dime.
This helps you to overcome the language barrier when doing business around the world or when interacting with the natives of your vacation destination. Many Americans are now interacting more with the East, particularly the Chinese and the Japanese, thanks to these translation apps.
If you love traveling, you definitely understand the pain of getting stranded in a bus terminus because the announcements/signboards are available in a language that you don’t understand.
In some cases, you are forced to book expensive hotel rooms during a trip because the available cheaper options do not have English speaking attendants.
With the latest innovation of voice translation apps, you can move around and communicate effectively in a foreign country.
But even though these apps are a big revolution in communication and traveling, they can’t replace human translation. For instance, human translation is essentialin simultaneous translation or other important events where the human intelligence remains superior to the machine.
The Corporate World
Besides changing how people communicate socially, technology is also revolutionizing operations within the corporate world. Employees to a given company, for example, can now work from different remote locations and relay data safely, easily, and conveniently between themselves using mobile technology.
Marketing, on the other hand, has experienced drastic changes in the sense that companies are now using the social media and other digital marketing platforms to communicate directly with their target audience, unlike traditionally when they had to pay a lot more for TV, OOH, newspaper and radio ads.
The Healthcare Sector
Technological innovations have greatly changed how research, data collection & storage, as well as treatment procedures are done. Nurses and doctors are now able to record a patient’s treatment history and share it with the relevant people in real-time.
Technology has also made it possible for doctors to centralize patient data thus making treatment easier and accurate. Thanks to the smart home technology, doctors and relatives can remotely monitor and attend to the sick. For example, doctors give smartphones to their mentally-challenged patients to monitor their mental fluctuations by the way they draw patterns on the phone. Mobile applications such as the Blood Sugar Tracker has also gone a long way in helping diabetics to monitor their blood sugar levels.
The Education Sector
With access to the internet and a smart device, you can get free learning sources online. E-books are cheaper, more convenient to carry, and more attractive to read compared to the traditional paperbacks. Teachers, on the other hand, are gradually replacing the traditional teaching tools such as whiteboards and projector screens in favor of the more effective and modern tools such as the visual & auditory multimedia devices. Lastly, teachers and students are now able to share notes, exams, and other soft learning material via Telegram and WhatsApp from the comfort of their homes. This has also made it much easier for parents to follow their child’s performance and be aware of the amount of homework they get.
With the many positive changes that technology has brought to our lives, it’s our duty to use it wisely and leverage all its benefits. We, however, must avoid the temptation of becoming lazy and irresponsible simply because technology is doing most of the stuff for us. Remember that technology is just a tool to make life easier and not a substitute for human intelligence, power, and human life at large.
Rilind Elezaj is an experienced a Digital Marketing Specialist with a demonstrated history of working in the marketing and advertising industry. Rilind possesses a strong entrepreneurial mindset and has devoted his career to enhancing the sphere of digital marketing. In his methodological approach, Rilind integrates web development and other digital marketing solutions to create hybrid strategies that bring the best results.
