A few years ago, back in India, a news broke that the telecom department has decided to stop the telegram (not the app, old school wired communication system) service from the next month. My grandfather, who used the telegram until the wide spread adoption of telephones in India in early 90s, wanted to have a telegram message as memoribilia. He took me with him to the office, and boy, it took us almost four hours just to request a message and then they took another four to five hours to deliver it! It immideately made me realise how the internet has changed our world! How easy it has made for us to share and exchange our feelings, thoughts, memoris, experiences and ideas with the entire world, that too, in a quick succession. I fail to recall any other invention which made as profound and rapid impact on our lives.
The social media apps, which run on the internet, made possible for me to connect with my high school friends, which I thought, are lost by then. It also help me in connecting with my prospectus client sitting anywhere in the world, aiding me in my buisness expansion. Furthermore, it fascilates me in reaching the precise audience, no matter where they are situated, for marketing my product. Applications of internet are limited to one’s imagination! With the advent of IoT (Internet of Things), we now have machines that help us in taking care of elders, monitoring health of patients and loved ones, cleaning our house, identifying issues in our car and suggesting fixes to it, and many more.
However, as the old saying goes–The greates good and the greatest bad are two sides of a same coin! The internet has improved our qaulity of life in the last two decades or so and assisted us in converting the world as a true family, it also has increased enxiety, inferiorarity, and other social stigmas in people, especially in younger generations and in teens. The online gaming and discussion forums, online shopping and food ordering, transportation apps are making people spend more time infront of a screen than going out and doint the things by themselves. According to me, it affects the ability and condifence of people in interacting with each other!
To conclude, no doubt that the internet has significantly enhanced our way of reaching out to our loved ones, business partners and many more. Of recently, the latest innovations and trends are going against the basic nature of humans, which is socialising and enjoying the time together. Moreover, as we have seen till now, the trend on the internet doesn’t last long. So, I hope that it also won’t last long and people, especially the Gen-Z and later generations, will start going out more!