Living a Digital Life

Welcome to the modern era, where information is always at your fingertips, and you can live most of your life online.  It’s possible to work, play, and learn online. You can escape the real world and live in your own digital fantasy in almost every aspect of life.  So, how do we go about navigating this new digital age? Growing up, you may have been learning your manners and how to ask politely and make small talk. However, now, we are teaching our youth how to avoid cyber bullies and remain polite online according to CFISA online security awareness.  You must be much more aware by now that there are many different sites and networks where your parents can’t even keep you safe. The technology renaissance opened a world to a whole new realm of ideas and opportunity. While the digital age has brought about a lot of amazing advances for society, there are new tricky hurdles for us to navigate together.

Online School

The internet has brought about an age of information.  Anything you need to know you can research online. And now, there are a multitude of accredited online degree programs where you can study.  Several young people are now choosing to get their degrees online to help with time management.  This shift to online education allows students to continue working to pay for their education.  You can now structure your classes around your life. If you are a parent, take care of your family, or need to make ends meet on your own, you can study at night or early in the morning and keep your daily routine the same.  

Most people focus on getting a bachelor’s or associate’s degree online, but you can also pursue a general high school degree on the internet.  For young students who are pursuing professional music or sports, their parents may choose to teach them from an online school. As an example, a lot of younger Olympians or child actors use this method to keep up with their training and their school work.  Homeschooling, in this way, has its difficulties. While you can pursue your passions, you miss the social aspect of high school. Staying online every day takes you away from normal growing situations that help you grow. Additionally, if you have a full-time job but want to improve your english skills, you can now find an english tutor online to help you with basic communication skills while not being physically enrolled in a school.

Remote Jobs

Not only has the internet infiltrated our education system, but we now have multiple opportunities to work one hundred percent online.  Many companies need managers, writers, or editors who can work from home. This multitude of job opportunities include data entry, transcription, freelance writing, editing, or email support.  These are simple jobs that you can fit into your everyday life. If you are an artist looking for some extra money, or a teacher who needs extra income over the summer, you can investigate these remote jobs.  Or if you’ve saved enough and are looking to travel the world, some of these jobs will allow you to do that while staying committed to work.

These remote jobs may seem less traditional without the workplace environment.  You can work on a company that helps with towing in Greenbank, Queensland while living in Europe.  It’s amazing how the digital universe connects people across the globe.  This may alter how you reach your target buyers. Rather than meeting all your coworkers or clients, you may be doing most of your communication over the phone or through other digital means.  This doesn’t mean you can’t still make meaningful connections with these individuals. You can still have a continuous and supportive relationship with your student, even if they live on the other side of the country from you.  

Online Shopping

The internet and cellphones have made another thing much easier — shopping.  Online shopping has become a multi billion-dollar industry.  In our busy lifestyles, it is easy to just look something up online to buy, rather than spending time searching in the store.  The convenience of online shopping encourages people to spend money at all different venues. Most stores in America now has an online option to shop.  We can order anything from clothing to furniture to food on the web. These distributors are also intelligent. With money back guarantees and free shipping offers, you spend money without worry or risk of not enjoying your product.  Just another way the digital age affects how we shop and live.

Computers Taking Over?  

There is some worry, however, that computers are moving from being helpful to taking over our job market.  To give a small example, most grocery stores now have a way for you to scan and bag your own groceries. These stores used to employ a lot of individuals to do that job, and now there is a much lower demand for these workers.  As we develop more advanced technology, there are more and more jobs which may be replaced by artificially intelligent robots.  Some jobs are lower risk than others.  You may be able to get a prescription online from a remote doctor, but any actual injuries still require treatment from a doctor or specialist… for now.  As exciting our new advancements are, there is still the worry that this digital revolution will change our society beyond recognition.

Information at Your Fingertips

The ease of technology puts anything you may need at your fingertips.  Have a question? Google it. Are you feeling sick? Type your symptoms into WebMD and self-diagnose your ailment.  Need to fix something around the house? Guaranteed, there are so many websites that give you a step by step guide. The plethora of knowledge plus the ultimate processing power of computers helps us learn and process quicker than ever.  Software and technology is involved everywhere to help with jobs and pleasure. There are certain programs to sell tickets at theatres, specific truck repair shop software, and all sorts of algorithms to direct specific advertising to you.  These specific programs can be helpful, when designed in an effective manner.  You can manage employees and clients and code future information you may need for your company.  

Social Media

When you start talking about the digital revolution, most people start thinking about social media right away.  Think about our lives 10 years ago, when we could go out without sharing about it, or had to send out birth announcements, rather than posting on Instagram.  This digital age has brought up a lot of questions and issues, but also great opportunities for connection. When used in the appropriate ways, social media connects old and new friends across the globe.  You can also connect with your favorite businesses. The whole marketing scheme for big business has revolutionized to fit in with how we consume media now.

While social media does a wonderful job connecting people digitally, it may be keeping you from connecting to people in the moment.  All the various pieces of technology in our arsenal leave us always distracted. Even if you are out to dinner with a friend or catching a movie with your family, we are always checking in on our digital friends and online presence.  Several studies have shown that the more ingrained we get into our cell phones, the less we are in touch with reality.