The Way We Live Has Changed Over The Last 20 Years As Technology Advances
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The way we live has changed over the last 20 years as technology advances
About 20 years ago there was a huge crash in the US stock market. The “dotcom bubble burst” resulted in many technology companies plunging into the stock market.
While some companies, such as Amazon, were able to quickly overcome the crisis, many technology companies collapsed as a result. Technology has improved in many ways in the last two decades since that historic disaster.
For example, more people are online now than twenty years ago. In 2000, only 50% of US citizens had a broadband Internet connection at home, today it is more than 90%.
In these two decades, the Internet has expanded widely in other countries around the world like the United States. While only 7% of the population was online in 2000, today more than half of the world’s population is using the Internet.
A similar trend is seen in the use of cellphones. At the beginning of 2000, the total number of cellphones in the world was 74 million. In just 20 years that number has crossed 8 billion. That means there are now more cellphones than people in the world.
Now technology is also being used on a more personal level than ever before. At the same time, various devices can now be easily carried anywhere. Apple introduced their first iPod in 2001. After 6 years they introduced the iPhone in the market. It was through such various inventions and discoveries that a new era began in terms of the use of technology at the personal level. Today we live in a world where technology touches every aspect of our daily life.
In addition to the personal level, many areas such as the media or mass media, various measures taken on climate change or health care have completely changed due to the advent of technology.
Media And Its Circulation
Most of the trends in how we consume media today have been developed in the last 20 years. In the early 2000s, many technology companies focused only on increasing communication within the office through technologies such as video streaming.
But many also took steps to create new types of media through it. In this way, different types of alternative media are created. At the same time, the social media also evokes a massive response. By 2004, the social media site ‘MySpace’ had only one million users. Facebook had not yet arrived. And in 2018, the number of Facebook users stood at 226 crores. In this way, billions of users are created on social media as well as on other sites.
Emerging online communities and social media have established themselves as huge arenas for alternative expression. But as the use of these platforms increased, they also became a source of new problems. Apart from spreading a lot of fake information or rumors through these sites, various disturbances are also created in the society.
Today, many technology companies are working to inform everyone about the real facts instead of fake information or rumors from online based media platforms. Recently many leading technology companies have also come forward on this issue. Like ‘Tropic’. Tropik works to identify genuine and fake images. Again, a company called ‘Two Hat’ is bringing content moderation technology powered by AI or artificial intelligence for social media.
Climate Change and Green Technology
Many scientists today are emphasizing reliance on technology to protect the environment. Climate change has recently become widely discussed, but the history of trying to solve this problem through technology is quite old. After the “dotcom bubble burst” in 2001, green technology or the green technology sector appeared as a new possibility for investors. As a result of which a lot of investment started in this sector.
Over the past two decades, many tech companies have turned their attention to tackling climate change. Until now, mainly pollution-free fuel has been thought of to reduce the damage caused by climate change. But now many are doing more innovative and far-reaching thinking along with it.
Many top tech companies like ‘Carbon Engineering’ or ‘Climworks’ are developing carbon removal technologies. Carbon can be absorbed directly from the air with these technologies. Through this, the damage caused to the environment due to the use of fossil fuels can be quickly repaired.
Biotechnology And Healthcare
Since the mid-1990s, there has been a massive investment in the biotechnology sector around the world. In the early 2000s, this investment increased further. At this time, many organizations are trying to develop advanced biotechnology by conducting research on technology.
Many technology companies are now working on disease detection and treatment. Again, many organizations have started working with the necessary technology to deliver healthcare to people’s doorsteps seamlessly. Recently, the spread of ‘telehealth’ technology has increased a lot. Many organizations are also creating various healthcare opportunities online through technology. New technologies such as virtual visits or chatbots are being used to bring healthcare to patients’ doorsteps. The demand for such technology has increased especially during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Many organizations are now focusing on the patient rather than the doctor when developing healthcare technology. For example, let’s talk about an app called Ada. It is a symptom checker app, which was originally created for use by doctors. But now the style and interface of the app has been changed keeping the patients in mind. So that the patients can also easily provide information about their disease symptoms. Also, some organizations like ‘Seven Cups’ have brought technology to deliver mental health care directly to the doorsteps of patients.
The last two decades have not only progressed in medical research. Rather, the use of healthcare technology at the personal level has also increased a lot.
