GO TECH – Going forward with technology

It is often said that you have to keep moving in a dynamic world or be left behind.  This hypothetically means that the earth rotates along its axis just like a treadmill at a gym, as long as it is moving you have to move with it or you will fall off.

It is a fact that technology continues to develop and expand at an exponential rate and the growth in technological advancement is ever-increasing. Technology has developed from the era of transforming materials (from stone tools to bronze tools to iron tools) to the era of transforming energy between the 1780- 1970s (from water-powered to steam-powered to electric powered to combustion-powered technology) to the new era of transforming information (communicating and storing information to computing information).

Communicating and storing information and the growth of technology has assisted mankind to continue to change our world. Information stored becomes raw data for further development and inventions as computing information with knowledge and algorithms leads to ideas for improvement and leads to further advancement. New ideas birth new forms of technology and the new technologies become future tools for creating other technologies in the future. Technology continues to improve with consistent upgrades and with every upgrade a better platform is created. As this cycle continues newer technology continues to emerge and they become vital tools today.

We are in the 21st year of the 21st century and the speed at which technology is evolving is exponential. This very rapid growth is the major reason why most people are finding it difficult to keep up. Technology has found its way into so many areas of life and has simplified the old ways of doing things. The world is moving so fast right now because of technology and tech-supported business and on the rise making remarkable profits. Some examples are:

Online shopping: the direct purchase of goods or services by consumers from sellers using the internet via a browser or a mobile app. Online shopping leaders include Alibaba, Amazon and eBay. Amazon for example was founded on the 5th of July, 1994 initially selling only books. Amazon currently does almost $950 million in retail sales daily. And that is just one example of how much potential online shopping has.

Online transportation order: people can rent cars for short trips driven by a driver from anywhere using mobile phone apps e.g. Uber, Turo and Hertz.  Uber launched the new direction of the taxi market in the early 2010s when the company launched the mobile app that simply connects drivers with riders. In 2020 uber generated $11.1 billion in revenue and over 50% of it came from riders mobility.

Music streaming: Also known as streaming audio is a method of transmitting audio content fed to your device directly from the internet without having to download from the internet. Examples of platforms that offer such services include Spotify, Pandora and Apple Music. Spotify is a digital music, podcast, and video service platform founded in 2006 that gives people access to millions of songs and other content from creators all around the world. Today, 365 million people use Spotify once a month, 165 million are subscribers, 70 million songs are available on Spotify and 2.9 million are podcasts.

Video streaming: Similar to music streaming, video is delivered and consumed continuously from a source with little or no prior storage in the network elements that are responsible for transmission. Examples of video streaming platforms include Amazon, Disney+, YouTube and Netflix. A group of ex-PayPal employees founded YouTube in 2005. Seeing its success, Netflix scrapped its planned streaming device and launched an internet-based streaming service instead. Only one year after YouTube was launched, Google acquired it for $1.65 billion. At the time, it was seen as a pricey purchase, for a technology that hadn’t generated any meaningful revenue. But, for Netflix and Amazon, it was confirmation of the potential for spectacular growth in the next decade. YouTube is now the most popular video streaming service in the world, with over two billion active users.

The list of technologies that have reshaped the world goes on and on. I haven’t yet mentioned the social media platforms that started to emerge (see an attached image showing timelines). All technologies are created for a purpose and in most cases, it is to simplify processes while maintaining quality, reducing cost and increasing productivity. Yes! Technology has its pros and cons but without a doubt, improved technology has more pros than cons. 

In conclusion, as more tech platforms rise to become useful in our everyday lives we can either be consistent users or creators ourselves. In order to remain relevant in a world where technology continues to advance and change the way things are done we all just must – GO TECH.