Technology or shall I say a miracle? Tech & innovation have stepped into our lives like a boon. It’s astonishing how everyone’s life is revolving around it. A young kid not only knows it’s just A for Apple, but he knows it as a tech company and the latest iPhone version. Reminds me of my childhood, it was A for Apple and then all I knew was to cut it to half and eat it.

Lets travel back for a decade or two. How was it to book a car for travel, or even ordering food from that nearby restaurant of yours with no discounts, unaware of better options around your street. All major computing work has been done through those heavy laptops or probably desktops.

The other day, I had a video call with my grandma for a food recipe who stays miles away from me. We had a nice facetime and guess what, something which could have taken a time off to travel to my grandma and learn, or probably a letter which could have resulted in a disaster considering the kind of chef I am, took minutes.

She not only knows how to do a video call, but she learns more on youtube, she reads books and books Uber, tracks her calories, etc. Technology just turned her to “Super Grandma”, I hope she will start writing soon on Medium as well.

From reaching within days to reaching within hours. We can barely survive without it. From waking up in the morning to going back to bed, one important part of technology travels with us in our hands and pockets — the mobile phone.

Shopping

From groceries at home to cool gadgets, many of us prefer buying them from eCommerce sites, Amazon, Flipkart, etc. Why? Probably because you get to see all the details, multiple pictures, and videos. Mainly, people who have bought them earlier post their feedback and pictures about the product.

Not limited to geographical boundaries, there are sites that deliver globally and not just limited to the retail sector. And if you find a problem with the product which has been delivered it’s easy to return it back. Online payment makes it equally easy for both the parties to transact. Something that could have taken hours earlier, can now be done in a few minutes.

Over the last decade, the eCommerce market has hiked by approximately 16%. As per digitalcommerce360, the global eCommerce market for 2019 was $3.46 trillion.

So what problem did technology solve here? A lot right. No need to get expensive real estate, no need for sales people in your shop, no risk of damaging your items from the storefront.

If you are a small business or a well established enterprise, solutions like Shopify, WordPress, Magento and many such eCommerce solutions help you set up your store in a matter of days. Logistics providers also cater to all kinds of businesses.

Transport

In just 5 clicks you are ready with your ride to the office or party. No need to worry about the parking spot, or at least not to trouble your friend to give you a lift back home while you are enjoying your happy non-sober moments after the party. And if the driver dislikes the melodious song of yours, you just give him a 2 star rating.

How roaming the world which was not even possible until 2 decades back, wherein booking a flight ticket took days but is instant now. With all the insurance and meal options on the go.

Driver-less cars will soon walk into the new age & will be great access for those with disabilities or can’t drive. We currently have drive assistance in new cars with cameras and sensors that help while parking, to detect blind spots, give warnings, etc.

Isn’t that amazing? Right from Ford Model T, to Tesla. From booking a cab across the street to Uber. Technology evolved and so is the precision of the process.

Entertainment

I remember as a kid back in the 80s, I used to fight with my siblings for my favourite TV show or a football match. One TV shared by the entire family. Well now even my grandma got her own iPhone and she got her own set of YouTube channels for wrestling shows. Entertainment, may it be Movies, Shows, or Music, we carry it along with us in our pockets.

Music you heard through your old radios, on cassettes or records will always hold a special nostalgic feeling in your mind. However, the current scenario has widely changed with online music that is downloaded on apps like Spotify, Youtube, Apple music, etc.

And it not just stops here, machine learning analyses your watchlist or playlist and recommends you what you could be interested in. It just saves all the time you need to browse some fresh voice to listen to.\

Education

Education has broadened its horizon as possibilities for learning virtually has become interesting and more captivating. For those away from institutes, can easily gain their degrees by correspondence & learning online. There are various platforms offering courses online, which are prevalent in the current scenario wherein people want to make use of their time and choose to engage in courses. Encyclopedias, news, art, or a new language, etc. can be studied from anywhere across the world. Researchers could interact on related topics of study & exchange ideas to build knowledge. Want to read books on the go but no space in your luggage, the kindle comes to rescue. E-reader devices like kindle or your own phone/iPad for that matter could hold thousands of books without taking up space. Audio books seem to be trending, though not reading you’re walking through the story with your imagination. These are suitable for seniors and people who just want to plug in something while travelling.

At the same time, the internet also limits the growth and power of imagination of students or people as they think all solutions are available online and hence it inhibits their brain to think out of the box.

Notes and assignments can now be stored on the cloud, and a link shared with your professor saves you a lot of paper and no one blames you for your bad handwriting.

Technologies like VR and AR help you learn more quickly and in an efficient manner than operating a real toad in your science lab. Poor creature!

Work

As of the day when I am writing this article, it’s the pandemic period. COVID-19 has given us a whole new dimension of the remote culture. Remote work is the new normal. However, imagine the remote culture without technology. We at Hashbinary got it all covered through a tool for each of our purposes. All our documents and emails are synced and safe on gsuite, we use Calendar and Asana for tasks and schedules. Skype comes to rescue for all our calls and stand-ups. Remote culture is something worth a try, it’s not just cost effective, but also time saver for people commuting to the office. Stats show there is a 400% increase in remote work culture in the past decade.

Overseas communication with clients and team distributed geographically could only be made possible through the technology. Google search and sites like stackoverflow made it easier for us to find solutions over the Internet. Forums and social media bring together people with common interests where you can save a ton of time researching something, rather you can work as a community and work towards a single goal and thus making research more powerful.

Still I prefer being a digital nomad, travelling and working beside some sea in tropical Thailand, sipping my pina colada and writing my stories on Medium, technology got me covered.

Hungry?

Food delivery services have made our lives so much easier! Especially bachelors who are staying far away from their homes. There are a number of services which offer freshly cooked food that gives a taste or a feeling just like home. You can order a number of your favourite dishes and they arrive in not more than an hour and a half. Be it a burger or be it chole puri or maybe even that calorie-ful dessert. No need to book any prior reservations and wait in the long queue for the order. You get your favourite meal at your doorstep. And this is all possible due to technology.

While looking for a good Pizza in your town, apps make your life so much easier. Technology behind food delivery apps scans the huge data-set they collect from users buying patterns and feedback. They do all the computing and what you see is the pizza next door. Imagine asking all your friends about the best pizza in the town, and what you get is an opinionated response. Life is much easier with technology, isn’t it?

The current global market revenue as of 2020 for food delivery is $45,909m, most revenue is generated in China, followed by the USA $23,991m and then India $9,207m.

. . .

Technical influences in our lives are enormous. I tried to limit this article to the most common influences in our life. Researches conducted in fields like AI, ML, Cryptocurrencies, Robotics, Self-Driving Cars, Biotech are changing our lives and enhancing our tomorrow. There will always be a debate on if it’s a boon or a curse, depends on what purpose we put the technology to. We have expanded our horizons to other planets and I believe there is a lot more to come.