400 words essay digitalization in daily life

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Digitalisation in Daily Life Essay

Essay – digitalisation in daily life.

Digitalisation in Daily Life Essay: Digitalization refers to the use of computers and internet to facilitate various functions and actions. Digitalization started way back in the 1950s with the advent of computers. Since then, the process has continued to increase its usage diversity. In 2015, the flagship programme “Digital India” enabled the mainstreaming of digital services in India. Digitalization has enabled efficiency and lower operational costs in production. With better User Interface (UI) and seamless communication, digitalization has some very obvious advantages.

Digitalization of communication through the introduction of software applications such as WhatsApp, Telegram, Microsoft Teams, etc., drastically changed the way we communicate with each other. We can now connect with anyone at any given time without being restricted by time and space/place. Improved and fast communication due to digitalization has allowed us humans to function easily and with much less errors. Also, digitalization has aided the infotainment industry. We can watch documentaries, news, movies with a click on the screen in the comfort of our homes or from anywhere we want.

In the economic and commercial sector too, we see how digitalization has revolutionized our functions. One of the most prominent changes as can be seen has been the increased usage of UPI or Unified Payments Interface. UPI has reformed the way we conduct commercial transactions. It has provided inclusivity for small scale businesses in the economy by allowing them to set up credit-acquiring systems conveniently. The introduction of UPI has reduced the dependency on the previous card/cash-based payment systems. The new digital infrastructure has moreover encouraged entrepreneurs to open up start-ups and online businesses. Thus, we see that many Indian businesses have started emerging in the domestic and international market, boosting the country’s economy as well as providing a much-needed self-dependent employment ecosystem. Moreover, availing services like applying for Aadhaar or PAN has been digitalized too which makes the process easier and more efficient.

The Covid-19 pandemic best highlighted the digitalization of daily life. With every physical contact-based activity being suspended for a considerable period of time, digitalization of daily life was the only option. Education was made digital through online classes conducted through apps like Google meet. Use of various online software for daily activities increased. Even the healthcare sector had been digitalized. It can be insisted that a rapid digitalization of daily life was what helped us avoid stagnancy. Thus, one can easily witness their digitalized life wherever they look.

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Essay Writing on Digitalisation in Daily Life in English(400 Words): Impact/Effects of Digitalization in Daily Life

Digitalisation is the art of integrating technology into our daily activities. It involves harnessing digital tools like computers, the internet and mobile devices to revolutionize our routines. It is all about embracing technology to enhance our modern lifestyles and make tasks more easier, faster and efficient.

Digitalisation is the transformative infusion of digital technology into various aspects of life, reshaping how we communicate, work, learn and interact. It has brought positive changes across multiple dimensions. Communication has become instant and global through social media, messaging apps and video calls, connecting people across distance. We can talk to family and friends no matter where they are, and digital tools allow us to connect with people from different places. This has paved the way for the exchange of ideas, thoughts, information, skills and life stories contributing to a more interconnected global community.

In education, students can learn online, even if they cannot go to school. Education has become more accessible with the availability of online learning platforms, offering diverse courses and resources to a wide audience. At work, digitalisation has given us the power to do things from home, collaborate with others and finish tasks more quickly.

Shopping is different now. Online shopping and e-commerce provide convenience and a vast array of products and services, while digital banking and online payment system makes transactions faster and safer. Entertainment has evolved with streaming services, online content creation and interactive platforms, offering diverse options for leisure. Now we can read online news, stories and watch videos on internet.

In healthcare, electronic records and telemedicine enable better patient care and remote consultation. Transportation experiences a remarkable change through the convenience of online booking for cabs, taxis and similar services. It has revolutionized the way we move, ensuring a safe, more accessible and interconnected urban landscape.

While digitalisation has brought many benefits, it has introduced some challenges into our daily lives. Privacy concerns have risen as personal information can be easily accessed and misused. Cybersecurity threats such as hacking, fraud, identity theft and cyberbullying pose risks to individuals and businesses alike. Excessive screen time and digital addiction can negatively effect our physical and mental well-being.

Social interactions may suffer due to over-reliance on digital communication, affecting face-to-face relationships. The digital divide creates inequalities, with some people lacking access to technology and digital skills, limiting their opportunities. Fake news and online misinformation can negatively influence our thought patterns and decision making. Apprehensions of traditional job loss arise as digitalisation transforms industries, requiring new skills.

In conclusion, digitalisation has changed our lives in many positive ways. We can talk to people far away, work and learn from home, and enjoy entertainment and shopping online. But it is also essential to address its negative effects on privacy, security, health, social dynamics, job loss and inequality to ensure a balanced and responsible integration of technology into our daily lives.

400 words essay digitalization in daily life

Digitalization in Daily Life Essay in English, 200, 400, 500 Words

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Digitalization in Daily Life Essay in English 200 Words

In this evolving, world one word that we all have heard of is digitalization. The whole world is digitalizing. Digitalization is changing the whole world, it has help us carry out our work faster and also in a very easy manner. Just think about how easily we can connect with our loved ones in this new world of digitalization. Everything is easy if digitalization is there. It has also helped us in so many other ways for example, online learning, finding educational information online, working from home etc. We can do so much with an internet connection and digital devices. Digitalization has helped us gain freedom of choice of job and flexibility. Our communication with our loved ones is also changing we can communicate and connect with people through social media platforms easily.

When something this good like digitalization happens, it also has some bad sides to it. With digitalization, the information that we provide online is considered vulnerable. The information can be used in many ways and some people tell to use it in a bad way. Cyberbullying, online fraud, and other online predators are something to be careful of. Digitalization is a very powerful tool that can be used in both good and bad manners. Everything matters on how a person uses it. So we need to understand the benefits and the bad sides of digitalization to use it properly.

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Essay on Digitalization in Daily Life 400 Words

Indroduction.

Digitalization has taken the modern world by storm. It has changed our views and thinking, communication and what not. Every aspect of our life has been changed with digitalization of our world. Everything is managed by digitalization these days starting from our communications to transactions and accounting. But there is always a bad aspect to every good thing, which means that digitalisation has its own advantages as well as disadvantages.

Communication and social media

Digitalization has bought the whole world to our finger tips. We can know everything that happening around the world with just a few touches on our digital screens. We can communicate with the whole world, share our thoughts and views on social media platform. Also digitalization helps us come closer to our loved ones as these social media platforms allows us to communicate with them easily. We protest, start political movements, make statements on current issues happening in the world through social media platform and encourage other citizens to start raising their voices against all the atrocities happening in the world.

Improvisation in the educational world

Digitalization has improved our ways of learning. Now within a few touches on our screen we can all the information that we need to study and learn new things on our own these days. Especially during the log down days both students as well as teachers turn the heads towards digitalization. To continue the classes for students we have to improve our ways of learning to online learning. We made use of all the legending platforms available like Google meet, zoom, Google classroom etc.

Marketing and e commerce

Nowadays on every social media platform we can see digital marketing. Digital marketing and e-commerce have become the new ways in which companies are introducing the products to their desired audience. We can sit at the comfort of our homes and purchase the products we need. E commerce and digital marketing have opened new door for companies to expand their economic growth.

But as said before, digitalization has its own bad sides. With digitalization anyone and everyone can get any information they need. It could be someone’s personal and vulnerable information that they provided on online platforms. Cyberbullying, threats to cyber security, breach of vulnerable data like banking information are something’s that everyone who is exposed to digitalization needs to keep in mind. Digitalization is revolutionary and it has indeed changed the world. But in the wrong hands it can be used in unethical ways. It is important to be responsible and navigate this powerful tool accordingly.

Essay on Digitalization in Daily Life in English 500 Words

Digitalization is the 3 rd industrial revolution which is also known as the digital revolution. We are turning towards the digital era. Nowadays everything and anything is digitalized. Communication, online classes, e-commerce websites, marketing, every sector is now being digitalized. Our daily lives are being changed everyday. Technology has taken the world by storm and everyday new ideas and opportunities are emerging. Companies have digitalized their purchasing to e-commerce platforms, students and teachers have turned to online platforms for learning and teaching, communication is through digital and social media platforms.

This revolutionary technological advancement have brought way to carry out works in a much faster and efficient way. These technologies can do the work more efficiently than humans and that to with a near zero error rate. Digital technologies have made our life is much easier. We can anything we need with just a few teachers on the screen. Everything we need is at our fingertips then ever we need.

Advancement because of digitalization

Banking and transactions .

Banking have become so much easier with digitalization, you don’t have to go to the bank for mostly nothing these days. With digital platform like YONO, Google pay, Paytm etc have made banking easy. Transactions can be carried out by just clicking a few options. QR codes, mobile recharge, merchant payments, bill payments everything can is available on these banking platforms. Transactions can be made by just scanning or exchange of UPI numbers.

Agriculture sector

The agricultural world have seen so much advanced changes. The farmers can now get weather reports, advanced technological and analytical information about soil, seed and harvest. Advancement in the agricultural field has helped in the improvement of farmers lives.

Teaching and learning

During the pandemic, the whole world had to turn to digital platforms. The educational sector also had to do the same, all the students and teachers used online platforms to attend and also teach classes. And even after the band we are still using these methods full stop because online learning and teaching is way easier than offline learning. All the information that we need is available whenever and wherever we need. And online classes easy because we can be taken from the computer on homes.

Work from home

Flexibility in work and being able to choose jobs according to our flexible timings has become easier with the digitalization. Work from home option has made things easier for us. With a digital device and a good internet connection we can work from the comfort of our own homes. No more stress and strain, no more 9-5 jobs.

E-commerce and digital marketing

Businesses and companies are ones that have gained a lot because of digitalization. Digital marketing and e-commerce websites have helped them expand their companies and small businesses. Products like clothes, medicines, home appliances and accessories, groceries and food and whatnot, are all a few clicks away. Digitalization has changed the world. But it is upto us to maintain the sanity of this revolutionary development. We need to decide how it is used and by doing so becoming a better citizen.

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Digitalization in daily Life Essay [Multiple Essays]

Table of Contents

Introduction

Digitalization has become an integral part of our daily lives, transforming the way we communicate, work, learn, and entertain ourselves. With the advent of technology, we have witnessed a significant shift from traditional methods to digital platforms. This essay aims to explore the various aspects of digitalisation in our daily lives and how it has revolutionized the way we live, both positively and negatively. From online shopping to remote work, from social media to virtual education, we will delve into the profound impact digitalization has had on our routines, interactions, and overall lifestyle. Join me as we embark on a journey to understand the role of digitalisation in shaping our contemporary society.

Digitalization in daily life paragraph

Digitalization has become an intrinsic part of our daily lives, permeating every aspect of our routines. From the moment we wake up and reach for our smartphones, to the way we shop, communicate, work, and entertain ourselves, technology has revolutionized the way we live. We can now order groceries online, connect with friends and family through social media, attend virtual meetings and classes, and stream our favorite movies and shows with just a few clicks. Digitalisation has brought us unparalleled convenience, efficiency, and access to information. However, it also poses certain challenges, such as the potential for constant connectivity and information overload. Finding a balance between utilizing digitalisation for its benefits while also ensuring it does not negatively impact our lives is crucial. As our reliance on digitalization continues to grow, it is essential to be aware of its impact and utilize it mindfully to enhance our daily experiences.

Digitalization in daily life 10 lines.

Digitalization has become an integral part of our daily lives, from the moment we wake up to the moment we go to sleep.
We rely on smartphones, tablets, and computers for communication, information, and entertainment.
Online shopping has made buying goods and services more convenient and accessible than ever before.
Social media platforms connect us with friends, family, and the world at large, allowing us to share photos, thoughts, and experiences.
Digitalization has transformed the way we work, with remote work becoming more prevalent and virtual meetings replacing in-person interactions.
Education has been revolutionized by digitalization, with online courses and remote learning options available.
Streaming services offer a vast library of movies, TV shows, and music, allowing us to enjoy entertainment on demand.
Mobile banking and digital payment methods have made managing finances and making transactions quick and effortless.
Digitalization has provided access to a wealth of information, allowing us to learn, research, and explore diverse topics with ease.
While digitalization has brought undeniable benefits, it is important to use technology mindfully, maintaining a balance between the digital and physical worlds in order to preserve human connection and personal well-being.

Digitalization in daily life essay 400 words

Introduction:

However, with the advent of digital tools such as email, instant messaging, and social media platforms, communication has become faster and more convenient. We can now connect instantly with someone across the world through video conferencing and share information in real time. Another significant impact of digitalization is on the way we access information. Gone are the days when we had to rely on encyclopedias or newspapers for knowledge. With just a few taps on our smartphones or computers, we can access vast information through the internet.

Digital libraries, online courses, and e-books have made learning more accessible and convenient than ever before. Digitalization has also revolutionized the field of banking and finance. With online banking, we can manage our accounts, pay bills, or transfer money with just a few clicks. It has eliminated the need for physical visits to the bank, saving time and effort. Likewise, digital wallets and mobile payment platforms have made transactions more accessible and more secure.

Furthermore, digitalization has transformed the way we shop. Online shopping has become a popular trend, enabling us to purchase products and services from the comfort of our homes. We can browse through a wide range of options, compare prices, and read reviews before making a purchase. This convenience has significantly impacted traditional brick-and-mortar stores, prompting them to establish their online presence. However, digitalization has some drawbacks as well. It has led to an increase in screen time and sedentary lifestyles, contributing to various health issues such as obesity and eye strain. Moreover, the rapid pace of technological advancements can sometimes be overwhelming, making it challenging to keep up with the latest trends and updates. Digitalization has also raised concerns about data privacy and cybersecurity, as our personal information becomes increasingly vulnerable to hacking and misuse.

Conclusion:

In conclusion, digitalization has transformed our daily lives in numerous ways. From communication to banking and shopping, digital tools and technologies have made our lives more convenient and efficient. However, it is crucial to strike a balance between our digital and offline lives and be mindful of the potential disadvantages associated with excessive dependence on technology. By harnessing the power of digitalization while being cautious about its impact, we can make the most of these technological advancements in our daily lives.

Digitalization in daily life essay 200 words

Digitalization has become an integral part of our daily lives, transforming the way we work, communicate, and access information. With advancements in technology, everything from banking to shopping, and even healthcare has gone digital. This essay will explore the impact of digitalization in our daily lives, discussing its advantages and disadvantages. Body: Digitalization has revolutionized communication, making it faster and more convenient. Tools like email, instant messaging, and social media platforms allow us to connect instantly with people around the world. We can share information in real-time, fostering collaboration and enhancing communication efficiency. Access to information has also become significantly easier through digitalization.

The internet provides us with a vast amount of knowledge right at our fingertips. Online libraries, e-books, and educational platforms have made learning more accessible and convenient, allowing us to acquire new skills and expand our knowledge effortlessly. Digitalization has revolutionized banking and finance. Online banking allows us to manage our accounts, pay bills, and transfer money with just a few clicks. Digital wallets and mobile payment platforms have made transactions easier and more secure. This convenience has transformed the way we handle our financial affairs.

Furthermore, digitalization has transformed the way we shop. Online shopping has gained immense popularity, allowing us to browse and purchase products and services from the comfort of our homes. With just a few clicks, we can compare prices, read reviews, and make informed purchasing decisions.

In conclusion, digitalization has had a profound impact on our daily lives. It has revolutionized communication, making it more efficient and convenient. Access to information has become readily available, and digital tools have made learning more accessible. Banking and finance have become more convenient, and online shopping has changed the way we make purchases. While there are advantages to digitalization, it is essential to strike a balance and be mindful of its potential drawbacks such as increased screen time and concerns regarding data privacy and cybersecurity. Nevertheless, digitalization has undoubtedly enhanced and simplified various aspects of our daily lives.

Digitalization in daily life poem 400 words

In this age of digitalization, oh what a sight to see, The impact it has on our daily lives, is as vast as the sea.
Gone are the days of pen and paper, now we type and swipe, With every touch and click, our lives take a digital hype.
We wake up in the morning, reach for our phones so bright, Checking emails and notifications, with our eyes still half-closed tight.
Social media is our playground, where connections are made, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and a virtual parade.
We order food online, with just a few taps on the screen, No need to step outside, it’s delivered, oh so pristine.
Groceries come to our doorstep, and an app makes it so simple, No more crowded aisles, just a digital shopping temple.
Education has transformed, with online classes and courses, From the comfort of our homes, we gain knowledge and resources.
No more traditional classrooms, now it’s virtual interaction, Learning at our own pace, without the need for distraction.
Workplaces have evolved, with remote teams and collaborations, Video conferences, and shared documents, avoiding any hesitations.
No need for commuting, we now work from our own abode, Digitalisation has enabled us to work on an international road.
Entertainment has taken a leap, with streaming sites at our command, Movies, shows, and music, are easily accessed with a streaming band.
We binge-watch series, losing track of time in a digital trance, No commercials to interrupt, just pure uninterrupted advance.
Communication has become instant, with messages sent in seconds, No more snail mail, just a digital wave, so infectious.
Video calls bring people closer, though miles apart, Gatherings and reunions, all captured by digital art.
Our banking and finances, now managed on a digital ground, Transferring funds and making payments, in just a few clicks, are so sound.
No more queuing in long lines, just a digital withdrawal, Contactless and convenient, digitalisation covering it all.
But amidst this digital age, let’s not forget the human touch, For true connection and empathy, it’s something we should clutch.
Technology has come a long way, enhancing our daily routine. But it’s in our hearts and souls, that true connection is seen.
So let’s embrace digitalisation, its wonders, and all its glory, But let’s remember the importance of a human love story.
For in the end, it’s the relationships we build that truly matter, And with a balance of both, our lives will surely shine and scatter.

Conclusion,

In conclusion, digitalisation has undeniably become a driving force in our daily lives, permeating every aspect of our existence. It has brought about convenience, efficiency, and accessibility like never before. We can now connect with people across the globe, access information instantly, and accomplish tasks with greater ease.

However, it is important to recognize that digitalization also comes with its challenges. It can lead to constant connectivity, information overload, and a potential loss of human connection. Therefore, finding a balance between embracing the benefits of digitalization and maintaining the human element is crucial.

We must strive to use technology as a tool to enhance our lives rather than letting it dictate our every move. Digitalization has undoubtedly brought us into a new era, but it is up to us to navigate it responsibly and mindfully. As our reliance on digitalization continues to grow, let us not forget the value of genuine human interactions and ensure that we use technology to enrich, rather than hinder, our daily lives.

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सचिन तेंडुलकर, विराट कोहली, एमएस धोनी आणि रोहित शर्मावर माझा आवडता खेळाडू निबंध

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Our Methods
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Read Our Research On:

Stories From Experts About the Impact of Digital Life
1. The positives of digital life

2. The negatives of digital life
3. Fifty-fifty anecdotes: How digital life has been both positive and negative
About this canvassing of experts
Acknowledgments

The greatest share of participants in this canvassing said their own experience and their observed experience among friends is that digital life improves many of the dimensions of their work, play and home lives. They cited broad changes for the better as the internet revolutionized everything, from the most pressing intellectual and emotional experiences to some of the most prosaic and everyday aspects of existence.

Louis Rossetto , self-proclaimed “troublemaker” and founder and former editor-in-chief of Wired magazine, summed it all up this way: “Digital technology is so broad today as to encompass almost everything. No product is made today, no person moves today, nothing is collected, analyzed or communicated without some ‘digital technology’ being an integral part of it. That, in itself, speaks to the overwhelming ‘value’ of digital technology. It is so useful that in short order it has become an integral part of all of our lives. That doesn’t happen because it makes our lives miserable.”

There is almost no area in which digital technology has not impacted me and my family’s life. Larry Irving

[artificial intelligence]

Mike Liebhold , senior researcher and distinguished fellow at the Institute for the Future, wrote, “Almost every member of my family regularly uses the internet to inform or improve aspects of their well-being: diet, fitness, health, social interaction with family and friends in person and online, education, entertainment, employment, commerce, finance and civic engagement.”

William Schrader , the founding CEO of PSINet, wrote, “Every single day: I have private communications with business associates in Europe, Asia, Latin America and in North America, and I receive emails or social media notices from my family members and their extended friends, and I receive the latest news and alerts from 20 different real news publications (such as the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post and the Economist). All of this comes with little effort. And , after doing my local security, I can check every public investment I have made anywhere on earth and I can check my bank accounts and make transactions I deem of import, and I can search for any one or multiple piece of information that I need instantly, with or without Wi-Fi. Yes, I have what I wanted, everything at my fingertips. That means information, knowledge, history, ability to transact. I try to never do this when others are with me, since I love living in the moment. Since I am alone a lot, I can find the time. But I do not condemn or even slightly criticize people for taking a call, checking a text, reading, etc. What we built is what we wanted. It’s just that few people are happier. But, I am OK.”

Paul Saffo , a leading Silicon-Valley-based technological forecaster and consulting professor in the School of Engineering at Stanford University, said, “I have had an email address on my business card since 1982, and carry enough electronics on my person to get nervous in lightning storms. Digital connectivity has become like oxygen, utterly essential to my research. The net effect of these innovations has been to tie me more closely to other individuals and extend my interpersonal connections well beyond the pre-internet links of in-person interactions and telecommunications. I have friends – close friends who I have known for well over a decade and with whom I communicate nearly every day. We have never met in-person. In fact, we have never spoken over the phone. At the end of the day, the two of the three highest human desires are the desire to be useful, and the desire to share stories. We have been doing both since our distant ancestors sat around a savanna camp fire sharing their days and their dreams. Now, thanks to digital media, the circle around the campfire has grown to encompass (if we wish) all of humanity.”

Garland McCoy , president of the Technology Education Institute, said, “I can be a real-time engaged parent, husband, partner, problem solver, counselor, comforter, etc., while traveling anywhere in the world, and – if I am comfortable with a little inconvenience – I can usually manage this real-time interaction for free! Something that was never possible before. No more ‘Death of a Salesman.’”

Kyle Rose , principal architect at Akamai Technologies and active Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) participant, wrote, “There are simply too many things to list here. I’ll just hit on three. I can more easily keep in regular contact with friends in distant places. Those with whom I would have lost most contact (because, really, there’s no way I’m going to write letters or spend hours on the phone) I can now maintain a relationship with, sometimes of a fairly deep and interactive nature, via social media. This enables us to pick right up when we do finally see each other in person. Technology eases the difficulties of day-to-day life. Because of the internet, I have access to virtually all of recorded music at all times. I can get up-to-date maps and traffic data to avoid incidents. I can order food, groceries or a taxi, obtain up-to-date information about my flight status, and navigate foreign cities via public transit all from my phone with a few taps of my finger. Finally and relatedly, how the hell did I ever learn anything before the internet? The card catalog? Virtually all of human knowledge is at my fingertips at all times. It is rare that I ask a question of fact that someone hasn’t yet answered, and now many of those answers are available to anyone with access to a search engine. The impact of all of these is profoundly positive. And this is only a taste of what the internet, and technological advances in general, promise.”

Fred Davis , a futurist/consultant based in North America, wrote, “Messaging apps allow me to connect with people who have given me support, provided a chance to talk about life’s challenges, seek advice and many other things. Access to people is simplified. Chat apps (unlike Facebook) provide a one-on-one connection with another person, which can be more personal, human and healing than posting on social networks. I have been using a Fitbit for a number of years. I have had a heart attack and triple bypass and am pre-diabetic. Getting regular exercise is important, and my Fitbit helps me set and attain fitness goals much more easily than before. The ability to monitor and track my sleep helps me take actions to get better sleep, which definitely increases well-being. By connecting to my Fitbit scale I can also track my weight and tie it to my exercise goals. My Fitbit can connect to a Dexcom blood sugar-testing device that can test blood sugar every five minutes, which is extremely helpful in managing my pre-diabetes.”

These one-liners from anonymous respondents hit on a number of different positive themes:

“I can get answers to questions about almost anything just by asking my telephone.”
“I can save money on everything, including clothing and shoes, airfares, hotels and eat at better restaurants and drink better wine.”
“Navigation via car has dramatically improved, with accurate up-to-date traffic information and destination wayfinding.”
“Digital life is being able to speak and see someone – regardless of where you are – on a phone you carry on your person.”
“Most people I have dated and approximately all of my friends knew me on the internet first; before such digital connectivity I would have just been lonely.”
“Sharing photos of new generations instantly with loved ones on the other side of the world and using video and chat to send/receive money; to joke, to tease, to mourn.”
“My son has grown up in a world in which he will never be lost; he will never be without a person to talk to; he will never be stopped from searching for an answer to a query.”
“I work remotely for a company halfway around the world, and so does my partner. No need to be at a main office.”
“The diffusion of webinars allows me to participate in many events organized in different countries without having to travel to them.”
“Digital technology allows me to have better knowledge that empowers me to better support my own health when I face challenges.”
“My job didn’t exist 15 years ago. I am a digital content manager.”
“It means that we can participate in important moments that time and distance barred us from in the past.”
“I feel more supported in good times and bad and laugh more than before I was connected online.”

Here is a roundup of the many ways these experts described the benefits they get and the benefits they observe.

Family enrichment and enhancement

Pamela Rutledge , director of the Media Psychology Research Center, said, “My 90-year-old father was on Facebook for the sole purpose of connecting with kids and grandkids who were scattered across the country. Reading and commenting on their posts gave him the ability to participate in the process of their lives. Knowing what the family members were doing increased his sense of involvement and the overall intimacy he experienced with them all. This familiarity also jump-started any family gathering, keeping people who were geographically disparate from feeling like relative strangers and allowing relationships to be more immediately meaningful. Texting in all forms serves the same purpose. Closeness in relationships is achieved by the frequency of contact. The human brain reacts to virtual contact as if it were real, releasing the same neurotransmitters of positive emotion and reward as if people were face to face. Texting allows for the multiple touchpoints, the sharing of life’s process and the reassurance of connection. These experiences replicate the behaviors that developmental psychologist Mary Ainsworth described in her ground-breaking work on attachment theory and how people form a secure attachment style, essential to emotional well-being.”

The simplest anecdote is about keeping a family messaging chat open with my wife and children. Stowe Boyd

Stowe Boyd , managing director at Work Futures, said, “The simplest anecdote is about keeping a family messaging chat open with my wife and children. My kids – both in their 20s – live in Brooklyn, which is close to where we live, but over an hour away. However, we all participate in the chat, often several times in a day. We share pictures, links, stories, plans. It is simply much lower friction than how I managed to remain in contact – or didn’t, really – with my parents when I was in my 20s. Then it was an occasional phone call, visits when possible, but it was pretty tenuous. And I had what most of my contacts considered an unusually close and caring relationship with my folks. I wouldn’t say my family today is hyperconnected , but we certainly remain very connected, where scarcely a day passes without some interaction between all of us despite the physical distance involved. And this has allowed an extra richness to my life, and I guess theirs, a counter to the possible distance that could otherwise grow in our relations because of the hour of travel that separates us.”

[difference of digital life]

Steve Stroh , technology journalist, said, “Two observations. The first is that one of the regrets of my life is that I didn’t work hard enough to stay in touch with all of my family and friends as I moved away from my hometown and got involved in my career. Thus, many of my family and friends that were once dear to me are now estranged – entirely my fault. In my daughter’s generation (born in the 1990s), with social media like Facebook, etc., my daughter’s generation and beyond, they will never get entirely out of touch with family and friends (unless they really want to). They’ll know about significant events in their friends’ and family’s lives as things happen, and can always reach out because there’s a consistent point of contact – the social media messaging, ‘stable’ phone numbers such as mobile, email, etc. The second is that my wife and I maintain a near-daily ‘running conversation’ with my daughter who’s moved away via three-way ‘text’ messaging. We often share photos (of the family pets, as it turns out) and let each other know about important or unimportant – perhaps funny – things that are going on in our lives. So the three of us are never really out of touch, which is a wonderful, wonderful thing. I wish I could do this with MY father (who is, alas, very technophobic).”

Richard Sambrook , professor of journalism at Cardiff University in the United Kingdom, wrote, “Very simply, I can talk to and see my daughter on the other side of the world at low or zero cost via video/smartphone technology in a way that was unthinkable a decade or more ago. It helps hold families together.”

Perry Hewitt , vice president of marketing and digital strategy at ITHAKA, said, “We live in an aging society; in the developed world, the population is getting older, people are living longer, and fertility rates are falling. Here in the U.S., where families can be geographically dispersed and family-leave policies minimal, caring for older relatives is difficult. Our family has benefitted from the many technology advances in elder care from cameras to robots to medication reminders to video calling. There is so much available to track critical metrics and improve quality of life – for the elderly and their tapped-out caregivers. I believe we’re still in the infancy of technologies that can improve medical compliance and personal safety, and combat a scourge many older Americans face: loneliness.”

Mary Chayko , a professor at the Rutgers University’s School of Communication and Information, wrote, “My family and I now stay in contact via an unending series of group texts. While we would have remained connected via letters or phone calls in a pre-digital time, this allows the simpler, more convenient and more frequent sharing of moments both incidental and more meaningful, and keeps us consistently in one another’s minds and hearts.”

Alex Halavais , director of the M.A. in social technologies at Arizona State University, said, “We have two children in elementary school. It starts at the same time each day and ends at the same time. The children are generally out of touch with the family during this period. This would not have been unusual when I was in elementary school or when my parents were in elementary school, but the other institutions in our lives have changed this. We have shared family calendars that show who needs to be where and when, but these change with some consistency. While my partner and I both have busy careers, they never fall within clearly defined work hours, and mobile technologies mean that our everyday social and business lives are weaved together rather than blocked in clear periods. Time has changed, except for the kids’ grade school. It remains anchored in one position: the 20th century.”

Eelco Herder , an assistant professor of computer science whose focus is on personalization and privacy at Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen in the Netherlands, wrote, “My husband and I live relatively far away (about two to five hours) from our families and our friends live in several countries. Facebook makes it easier to stay in touch with them, to inform them about important events, to show pictures of our daily lives, and – in return – to be informed about things that matter to them. For me, my circle of online friends has evolved from mainly ‘online contacts’ in the mid-2000s to people whom I know in daily life. As a result, if we meet friends after a year or so without contact, we do not need to give an overview of last year, but just continue the conversation and play a board game. It is also easier now to stay in touch with a larger number of people than in earlier days. Apps like WhatsApp allow us to have daily contact with our families, simply by exchanging short messages or sending quick pictures. This interaction does not replace phone calls and visits, but complements them.”

Nathaniel Borenstein , chief scientist at Mimecast, said, “In the 1980s and early 90s, people asked me why I cared so much about advancing the capacities of email. My usual reply: ‘Some day I will have grandchildren, and I want to get pictures of them right away, by email.’ This dream came true when I received an email that contained a sonogram image of my twin granddaughters when they were each no bigger than a few cells. I had expected those first pictures to be considerably cuter. Even though I was an evangelist for the future of communication technology, that technology exceeded my wildest imaginings.”

Srinivasan Ramani , a retired research scientist and professor, said, “It was in 1993. My daughter left school in Bombay and moved to college in the U.S. Telecommunication in India was quite bad in those days. The number of telephones, both landline and cellular, was about 3 million. (Compare with the billion or so cellphones we have in the same country now!) I knew it would be difficult for my daughter to call us back soon after arrival at the college, and so had asked her to get access to internet on campus and contact us through email and chat. She did that within hours of arrival. My wife had, to that point, carefully stayed away from the dial-up terminal I had on my study table at home for years. Now, she suddenly demanded to be introduced to the system. She demonstrated that given the right motivation, people can learn to use a dial-up terminal for email and internet chat in two days at the most! Our daughter was, for the next four years, our daughter on the Net!”

Claudia L’Amoreaux , digital consultant, wrote, “I started using videoconferencing early. First I used a black-and-white video phone that sent a still image every 5 seconds or so. Friends and I got our hands on one and did some fun experiments with artist techies at the Electronic Cafe in Los Angeles. Later I used Cornell’s CU-SeeMe videoconferencing. A real turning point for me was using the high-end PictureTel videoconferencing system in the early ‘90s. When the PictureTel staff dialed up and connected me to a person in New York City (I was in Monterey, California), as I said hello, tears came involuntarily to my eyes; the intimacy was so unexpected, I was overwhelmed with this encounter with a stranger. Fast forward to five years ago. My 85-year-old mother had a recurrence of cancer. We lived many miles apart. On one of my visits, we went to the phone store and I helped her pick out her first iPhone. It was so awesome to watch her learn to text with her friends. I could FaceTime her from my home while I got my life in order so I could return to take care of her. That phone was a literal lifeline during her last months – a source of joy, a tool for coordinating her care, and a reassurance for me that I could actually see daily how she was doing. I think of all the technology in our lives, videoconferencing technology contributes in a profound way to my well-being, bringing me closer to dear family and friends who live at a distance, or even just across the bay like my daughter does. I love it when we both have time to just hang out together via FaceTime when we can’t be there in person.”

Kirsten Brodbeck-Kenney , a director, said, “Thanks to social media and video chatting, my parents have been able to be very involved in my child’s life in spite of living on the other side of the country. She is only two and a half, but she knows their faces and voices and feels connected to them, even though she’s only met them a handful of times.”

Work creator, enabler and enhancer

I spend a great deal of my day online, and being hyperconnected makes it possible to find all the things I need to have a decent quality of life. Dewayne Hendricks

Dewayne Hendricks , CEO of Tetherless Access, said, “Living a digital life has made it possible to be self-sustaining financially. I spend a great deal of my day online, and being hyperconnected makes it possible to find all the things I need to have a decent quality of life. The type of life I’m leading now would not have been possible 30 years ago. I take comfort in the fact that I’ve had a hand in shaping a part of this thriving digital Web.”

Michael Rogers , a futurist based in North America, said, “I now live half the year in the Sicilian farm country where, thanks to wireless internet access, I can do most of my work. Ten years ago that would have been quite impossible. One of the things I most like about Sicily (besides the obvious attractions) is that while there is plenty of Facebook and email and Twitter, the ‘digital lifestyle’ has not colored private and public life so much as it has in my other home, New York City. Sicily remains a far more face-to-face culture. Why that is the case and how long it will continue is a longer story, but it is ironic that I’m using the new digital tools to avoid the side effects of those same tools.”

[Transmission Control Protocol]

James Blodgett , an advisory board member with the Lifeboat Foundation, wrote, “Important work is shared. When several string theorists published several papers predicting black hole production at particle colliders, I became involved with the collider controversy. The original safety considerations had glaring holes. … I made contacts with safety experts and scientists who were also concerned. I started a Global Risk Reduction special interest group in Mensa, I became an advisory board member of the Lifeboat Foundation (one of thousands), and I participated in writing petitions and contacting people. … The main thing we accomplished was to get CERN, the organization sponsoring the then-upcoming Large Hadron Collider, to do a second safety study.”

[Internet Relay Chat]

Jordan LaBouff , associate professor of psychology at the University of Maine, commented, “There are so many ways, from allowing me to stay connected to my family and other relationships while I travel for work and research, to being able to translate or navigate on the fly in difficult cross-cultural situations. The one that springs to mind is actually my wife’s work experience. Two years ago, due in part to the challenges of living with multiple chronic health conditions, my wife left her successful job as a cell technologist at a local hospital to pursue digital journalism. It has allowed her to work from home and write for a large public audience about research surrounding bipolar disorder. This digital environment provides her employment, and her writing supports thousands of people every week who read her research (that she accesses digitally) and writing and who get social support and well-being tips from it. It’s a remarkable way the digital world has improved our physical one.”

Tom Wolzien , chairman at The Video Call Center LLC, said, “My family’s creation of The Video Call Center to produce broadcast-quality television from the 4 billion global smartphones (and related patents and other intellectual property to make it reliable and cost effective) has enabled a flattening of traditional live video access, enabling programs based on zero-cost live remotes from about anywhere on the planet without field origination, transport, or control room costs. This means that any media organization can put about anyone on the air from anywhere, restricted only by the depth of the producer’s contact list.”

Jane Elizabeth , director of the accountability journalism program at the American Press Institute, wrote, “Digital technology has allowed my small non-profit organization to work efficiently and effectively from wherever we are in the world. For non-profits and even small for-profit organizations, you just can’t overstate the positive benefits of this type of mobility. There are absolute cost savings in overhead, travel, hourly wages. And there are qualitative benefits in employee work-life balance, productivity and emotional health.”

Jeremiah Foster , an open-source technologist at the GENIVI Alliance, said, “I lived and worked in Sweden for about 15 years. Recently I moved back to the United States to be with family since I’m originally from the U.S. I’m able to keep my employment, including my salary, my title and my day-to-day work while living thousands of miles away from the company I work for.”

Eugene Daniel , a young professional based in the United States, said, “Digital technology impacts every aspect of my daily life. As a member of the media, my job depends on technology (telecommunications, social media, internet). As a person who lives apart from family and loved ones, I depend on digital communication to stay in touch – including frequently connecting on FaceTime with my girlfriend. The uses are endless.”

Devin Fidler , a futurist and consultant based in the U.S., commented, “Sites like Upwork have allowed Rethinkery Labs to routinely pull together ‘flash teams’ of colleagues, support and expert advisers in a way that accomplishes many tasks more efficiently than would have been humanly possible before coordination platforms.”

Frank Feather , a business futurist and strategist with a focus on digital transformation, commented, “Technology allowed me to quit commuting – which is asinine in this era – to quit my career job, and to become a full-time consultant, thus allowing me to help far more organizations on a freelance-anywhere basis. This has been most fulfilling. Similarly, my children have built worldwide networks of friends and fellow students. We have two adopted daughters, and the internet has allowed one of them to find and connect with her birth family in China. None of this would be possible without the internet. The internet unifies people and combines ideas very easily.”

Yoram Kalman , an associate professor at the Open University of Israel, wrote, “Digital technology freed me from having to spend all of my work hours in the office. I have been telecommuting and working from home at least part of the week since the late ‘90s. That would not have been possible without the advent of digital communication. It allowed me to better integrate work, family commitments, leisure, health challenges of self, of children and of elderly parents, social commitments, etc. Consequently, my work is more productive. Furthermore, the ability to work across geographical and national borders opened new opportunities that made my work more exciting and fulfilling. Throughout this time, I had to learn and relearn how to use communication technologies in ways that empower me, and how to minimize the harm they cause. It is an ongoing learning challenge.”

Charlie Firestone , executive director of the Aspen Institute’s communications and society program, said, “I run an office of seven people. I was able to move from Washington, D.C., to California with little detriment, mostly due to video-conferencing. In our case it is Skype for Business that puts each employee a touch of a button away, and the video changes the interaction from simply voice calls or email. I see video calls, a la FaceTime or Skype to be a common activity of the future in business.”

[Structured Query Language]

Adam Montville , a vice president at the Center for Internet Security, said, “I have the privilege of working from home each and every day. While there are some aspects of office life I miss, the truth is that technology has made this possible. For our family, this has been immeasurably valuable. I can work more productively at different times of day, all while maintaining healthy boundaries for work/life balance (which really isn’t about hard boundaries as much as it is about unobtrusively blending the two). Before such technology existed, I had to commute. I had to be tied down to a specific schedule each and every day. I couldn’t connect to colleagues from a mountainside or a sailboat. It just wasn’t possible.”

Ann Adams , a technical writer based in North America, said, “It gave me a profession; one that did not exist when I was growing up.”

Vincent Alcazar , director at Vincent Alcazar LLC, wrote, “The growing mobility of labor cannot be underestimated, and the primary enabler is the gig economy with the internet as its engine. The gig economy only grows from here, as does its entwinement within people’s lives.”

Health and wellness aid

Avery Holton , an associate professor of communication at The University of Utah, commented, “As someone who has twice experienced the impact of cancer, once at the beginning of digital and social media and once in 2016, I feel more empowered by the ability to be transparent and accepted. Yes, we all still enjoy sharing those moments in our lives that give off the best appearance, but the stigma of sharing experiences of disease or pain or loss has lessened. More and more, we are encouraged by the actions or the postings of others to share our tougher experiences and to, if we so wish, build a community around those experiences. The first time I went through cancer, I felt lost and disconnected and without voice. This time, though it admittedly took some coaxing from friends and other supporters, I shared my experience and my recovery. That really helped me through the process and into a quicker, more lasting mental, emotional and physical recovery.”

My online network and digital tools made it easy to share the event, his progress, my stress and feelings, for others to empathize and share resources and advice. Susan Price

Susan Price , lead experience strategist at the United Services Automobile Association (USAA), commented, “My husband had a stroke last year. My online network and digital tools made it easy to share the event, his progress, my stress and feelings, for others to empathize and share resources and advice. I found myself carefully segregating my communications by channel, moderating the degree of honesty according to the size and makeup of the group. I report to the largest group in Facebook ‘sanitized’ updates of mostly hopeful progress reports and vignettes that show me or my husband in a flattering or inspirational light. I avoid upsetting others with starkly honest or too-revealing stories of my own or my husband’s pain, frustration or lack of coping. My husband is aware of my propensity to share, and has asked directly when we’re discussing a fraught situation, ‘This isn’t going on Facebook, is it? Good!’ But he suggested my posting and sharing some achievements. Because of its ubiquity and reach, Facebook helped me identify select others in my network – many of whom I hadn’t spoken with in 10 to 20 years – who had directly relevant experience with caregiving of stroke survivors and adjusting when a partner suffers a severe health crisis. With those found veterans, I moved the discussion to more private channels such as Facebook Messenger, email or phone to share more honestly my negative feelings, fears and pain, and received directly helpful specific advice, support and resources. I’ve also used caregiver forums to connect with quickly available communities of peers in situations much closer to my own.”

Gina Neff , an associate professor and senior research fellow at the Oxford Internet Institute, said, “Digital technology has been a godsend for care-givers, allowing people to coordinate their efforts to help during cancer treatment, when a newborn arrives, or during a health crisis. Apps and websites cannot replace the communities that have always connected and supported us, but they can help diverse and dispersed groups coordinate care in unprecedented ways.”

Bradford Hesse , chief of health communication and informatics research at the National Cancer Institute at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), said, “I now stay in closer contact with my healthcare provider than I ever have before. If I have a question, I can ask it through secure messaging. If I want to evaluate my own recent blood panels for areas of concern or progress, I can do that online through a secure portal. Robocalls to my house from my provider as well as text messages to my phone ensure that I do not miss a recommended cancer screening. I watch my diet more rigorously with the help of a diet app on my smartphone equipped with camera to retrieve caloric/nutritional information, and I monitor my exercise goals through the use of my Apple Watch wearable. If I have a complaint, it is usually because the ecosystem of medicine is still not connected enough. There are laggards who resist sharing my electronic health record data with specialists as needed. There is 20th-century thinking that prevents these digital technologies from being fully integrated into the medical system in ways that will be cost-efficient, interoperable, empowering and truly usable.”

Thomas Lenzo , a respondent who shared no additional identifying details, commented, “Digital technology has facilitated my management of various aspects of my healthcare. I am able to schedule appointments and order prescription refills online, at any time of day. I can get detailed text or video information about health issues from trusted sources. I have access via portals to my health records. I also tell family and friends how they can use digital technology to impact their health.”

Ed Black , president and CEO of the Computer & Communications Industry Association, said, “The ability to monitor the medical records, procedures, medicines of a loved one remotely provides opportunity for quality oversight and rapid response, in contrast to being tied to hospital visits and uncertainty.”

Gary L. Kreps , distinguished professor and director of the Center for Health and Risk Communication at George Mason University, wrote, “My family and I use wearable fitness trackers that tally our daily exercise behaviors (steps). This has influenced both our awareness of our physical activity and motivation to exercise regularly. We strive to accomplish our 10,000 daily steps! We also compare our exercise levels and encourage each other to engage in physical activity. We now seek opportunities to exercise together to achieve our activity goals. This has improved our overall physical activity, fitness and health.”

Kevin J. Payne , founder of Chronic Cow LLC, said, “Since I research the effects of chronic illness and live with multiple sclerosis, I have a particular interest in using these technologies to monitor and evaluate my condition, keep up on the latest research, and connect with others – both professionals and others living with chronic conditions. My life has been radically affected by these burgeoning technologies on all these fronts. It allows me to collect my own data, blend it with other datasets and generate and test real-time predictive algorithms. I have a far better understanding of my condition, especially as it is baselined against relevant populations. I not only get access to cutting edge pre-print research, but I’ve also been able to widen my professional network by communicating with the researchers. And my involvement with patient communities has enriched my life in many ways.”

David Myers , a professor of psychology at Hope College, wrote, “As a person with hearing loss and an advocate for a hearing-assistive technology that has great promise (www.hearingloop.org), the internet has networked me with kindred spirit advocates nationwide (also via 19,898 emails I have sent and 18,516 received with the words ‘hearing’ and ‘loop’). Together, our internet-facilitated ‘hearing loop’ advocacy has led to thousands of newly equipped facilities, from home TV rooms to worship places to auditoriums to airports (and New York City subway booths and new taxis). And more progress is on the horizon. Supported by digital technology, we are making a better world for people with hearing loss.”

[doctor in general practice]

Doug Breitbart , co-founder and co-director of The Values Foundation, said, “In my life I have experienced significant adverse changes and circumstance, living situation and health. Virtual connectivity via the internet has enabled me to establish networks of connections, collaborative communities and new friendships and relationships with people around the world.”

Leah Robin , a health scientist based in North America, said, “My family has a genetic form of anemia that is very rare. Because of digital technology we’ve been able to make contact with researchers, take advantage of on-going research, and provide and receive support from other patients from around the world. The impact has been, at times, lifesaving for my family members.”

Christopher Bull , a university librarian, said, “I had an itchy rash on my hands. Found articles on the internet which suggested using witch hazel. No rash, no itch.”

Community lifeline

Ethan Zuckerman , director of the Center for Civic Media at MIT, wrote, “I went through a divorce recently and wrote about my experiences online. While there are few folks in my immediate community who are going through divorce, I found several friends in other cities in my extended circles who had excellent support and advice. One of the most supportive individuals was an acquaintance from college who was not a close friend, but who stepped up on Facebook and was a wonderful support to me from halfway around the country.”

Together, we grow intelligence, connect up one another’s work and support positive social change just by doing our work, following one another and sharing what’s meaningful more widely. Anne Collier

Anne Collier , consultant and executive at The Net Safety Collaborative, said, “I ‘talk’ with people all over the world on a daily basis on Twitter – seeing, learning from, supporting and spreading what’s meaningful to them in their work and lives. It’s a tremendous source of inspiration for me. Together, we grow intelligence, connect up one another’s work and support positive social change just by doing our work, following one another and sharing what’s meaningful more widely.”

Kathryn Campbell , a digital experience design consultant, said, “I have a young friend who lives in another state in a rural area. Over time, I have realized from their social media posts that he/she is emerging as gender non-conforming (probably transsexual). In the past, this is a journey that I would probably not have known about, especially since his/her immediate family is very conservative and have not accepted this facet of the young person’s identity. I am so grateful to have been included in this revelation so I can offer my unconditional love and support. And I am even more grateful that a person who in the past would have felt isolated, unnatural, and broken now knows that they are in fact part of a global community. He/she can find and utilize peer support groups as well as myriad medical, psychological and spiritual resources that would not have been available to someone in a small town in the past. I believe this will probably save lives. I definitely hope that it will help increase our ability as a society to accept others who don’t conform to our preconceived notions of what is normal.”

Ana Cristina Amoroso das Neves , director of the department for the information society at Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, said, “The smartphone has become a part of my family life. The current organisation we have and the data we can share more than modified the way we interact. There is no waste of time and therefore we all gain efficiency in our daily life. The dawn of Internet of Things is already embedded. … If there is an electricity glitch, we cannot even think how will we survive due to the new paradigm we have in our lives. Hyperconnection is part of my family and friends’ well-being. It is nothing that can be compared with the life my parents had. I wonder how I could have survived in that society, living before total digital connectivity existed, even when it had just started and was not spread yet.”

Deborah Lupton , a professor at University of Canberra’s News & Media Research Centre, said, “I live in a vast continent (Australia) where academics are scattered many kilometres from each other, and it is a very long, expensive and exhausting plane ride from my colleagues in the Northern Hemisphere. However, I have extensive networks with my colleagues on Twitter and Facebook. I enjoy taking time out to chat with them, sharing professional and also some personal information regularly. It makes me feel less isolated and more easily able to keep in contact with my academic network. Nothing beats face-to-face encounters, but social media and emails, as well as the occasional use of Skype, is a far better way to maintain these contacts than letter writing or faxing, which is how we did things before digital media.”

Nancy Heltman , visitor services director for Virginia State Parks, said, “I have met and developed relationships with people outside any sphere of reference I never would have had thanks to my digital life. This started when I worked on the 2008 Obama campaign, includes people I met through a group where we shared our love for household pets and goes through today where I have a relationship with customers that I never would have met personally. While I do not believe that my online relationships replace ones that involve personal face-to-face connections, they are important and have broadened my horizons in many ways, adding a richness to my life. In fact my more-traditional face-to-face relationships have also benefited from more communication due to digital communications. When forced to only have relationships with people you can meet in person, you tend to live in a more-narrow world, with people more like you. Digital communications broadens your horizons, or it can if you want it to.”

Social media: The horizon expander

Michael R. Nelson , public policy expert with Cloudflare, said, “I’m an avid user of social media, which I use to track developments in internet policy around the world. Almost every day, one of the people I follow on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn shares a report, law review article, economic analysis, or news article on something I need to know about and would not have discovered by just reading the U.S. newspapers and media sites I track regularly. Equally importantly, my Facebook and LinkedIn friends introduce me to experts in the field in countries around the world – without my having to spend time flying overseas to attend conferences. In 2017, I was able to be a fun participant in the Global Conference in Cyber Space in New Delhi without missing Thanksgiving with my family. Likewise, I was able to be a remote participant at the UN’s Internet Governance Forum in Geneva without leaving my house (as long as I was willing to tune into the webcast at 4 a.m.).”

[bulletin board system]

Michael Roberts , an internet pioneer and Internet Hall of Fame member, commented “Despite its well-known problems, I find that Facebook is important to me in a number of ways. 1) Keeping up with professional friends around the globe now that I am retired. For an old fart (81), it is a source of daily intellectual stimulation and a feeling of keeping my hand in the game. 2) A window into many marvelous places and activities. I am a railfan and there are restored steam engines, abandoned trackage, lonely and empty depots, etc., to fill any amount of time I have available. Name your hobby or sport, and there are folks out there to share their discoveries with you. 3) The original ‘family and friends’ angle. My siblings and I are all over the U.S. Facebook lets us pretend we are close (Worldwide webcams add a lot as well). There are lots of other examples – politics, medicine, personal safety, education.”

Jerry Michalski , founder of the Relationship Economy eXpedition, said, “I now have peripheral vision into the lives of family, friends and acquaintances a few degrees from me – all voluntarily. When I see them, I don’t need to ask ‘what’s up,’ but can say ‘I’m glad your daughter got through her operation,’ or whatever is appropriate for the state of their lives I can observe. Those weak ties are priceless, and lead to insights. In the early days of Twitter, I left a meeting and tweeted something like, ‘Just left a mtg about the cash health care economy. Had no idea it existed or was big.’ At the time, I had set up for all my tweets to forward to Facebook, and the next day I got a fascinating eight-paragraph note on Facebook from an acquaintance who had taken his family off regular health insurance years ago, and was very happy with the outcomes. On the other hand, I am among the Satanic Device Addicts who check email on their phones first thing in the morning (it’s on the night table, right?) and tap and prod them all day long, in search of those little dopamine hits.”

… All of us now have the ability to find ‘our people’ – those who share our interests and passions and concerns – in ways that we couldn’t when our connective avenues were limited by time and geography. Scott McLeod

[live-action roleplaying gamer]

Jason Hong , professor at the Human Computer Interaction Institute at Carnegie Mellon University, wrote, “WeChat is not well known in the U.S., but is perhaps the most popular app in China. It’s primarily a messaging app, like Facebook Messenger or WhatsApp, but also serves as a social network and message board. What’s really amazing is how it’s really helped my family (from China) connect with others here in the U.S. My father-in-law found people to go fishing with. My mother-in-law found a monthly foodies group to go to. My wife found some of her old high school classmates, plus a group of people that buy foods in bulk at discount and split the costs. As for me, well, I’m the boring one, I just use it to send text messages and emoji to my wife. For my family, WeChat works well because it lowers the transaction costs of finding individuals with similar interests and backgrounds. My parents-in-law don’t speak much English, so WeChat acts as a major filter for people who do speak Chinese. WeChat also lets you organize message boards by geography, making it easy to find groups that are geographically nearby. It’s pretty amazing, since these weren’t really problems that we knew we had, and the WeChat groups just filled those needs quite nicely. Furthermore, it was a good tool that let us first find people virtually and then transition to real-world relationships.”

Richard Bennett , a creator of the Wifi MAC protocol and modern Ethernet, commented, “Facebook was useful for spreading the word to my extended family about the status of two relatives who died of pancreatic cancer recently. In one case, a sister-in-law in another country used me as a go-between to reach my wife, and in another I used it to contact a former stepbrother, a sister and a half brother. As modern families become more complex, communication tools have had to adapt.”

Lisa Nielsen , director of digital learning at the New York City Department of Education, said, “I am the administrator of several Facebook groups around areas of personal interest such as hobbies, sports, career (education). I started a Facebook group for teachers at the New York City Department of Education who love teaching with technology. In the past all these people existed in the 1,800 schools across the city, but there was no way for these people to find one another. The group now has close to 3,000 members. It is highly active, and strong relationships are being built. We have a direct line to what is happening in schools. Teachers feel supported like never before. They are more confident and better able to serve their students. They have increased job satisfaction. They share extreme gratitude for the group and its responsiveness. They are no longer alone but rather supported by a powerful network of other dedicated teachers.”

Knowledge storehouse

[massive open online courses]

Jeff Jarvis , a professor at City University of New York’s Graduate School of Journalism, said, “I count as an unfathomable luxury the ability to look up most any fact, any book, any news article at no cost and in seconds. I value the friends I have made from a tremendous diversity of background and worldviews thanks to the connected Net. I welcome many – though certainly not all – new voices I can hear now thanks to the Net putting a printing press in anyone’s hands. And not incidentally, I have transformed my career thanks to the lessons I continually learn by and about the Net.”

Deborah Hensler , professor of law at Stanford University, wrote, “On a personal level, digital technology enables me to work more productively from any place in the world. It provides access to a vast store of information and research data. It has enabled me to collaborate with academic colleagues in many different parts of the world, which has been an incredibly generative experience. In my personal life, it connects me to far-flung family and friends. It also connects me to people who share my political views, which gives me some hope – perhaps foolish – that working with them I can shift the political discourse.”

Ray Schroeder , associate vice chancellor for online learning at the University of Illinois Springfield, wrote, “I have been engaged in teaching, researching and presenting/publishing in advocating educational technology in higher education over the past 46 years. As I think back over those nearly five decades, my impact and reach today is far greater than I had ever imagined in 1971 or ‘81 or even 2001. Through the use of social media, I am able to share resources and perspectives to tens of thousands of others in my field on a daily basis. The prospect that one person could manage that scope of impact and reach was inconceivable for anyone who was not a network commentator on television or a nationally syndicated columnist. Now this opportunity extends to all who are dedicated to a purpose or cause.”

Larry MacDonald , CEO of Edison Innovations, wrote, “Sharing enables power to flow to those who ‘know’ rather than only those who control. People have a better grasp of news and tools that can make their lives easier. Knowledge disseminates faster and deeper.”

Problem solver and wonder creator

Hal Varian , chief economist at Google, commented, “I was in Rio trying to communicate with a taxi driver a few months before the Olympics. The driver pulled out his phone and clicked on Google Translate. Problem solved. Turns out that Google had trained all the taxi drivers in Rio how to use this fantastic tool.”

In terms of the spread of knowledge, the past two decades have been as revolutionary as when early man harnessed fire. Kenneth Cukier

Kenneth Cukier , senior editor at The Economist, wrote, “In researching my new book on AI, I came across a citation of a relevant document from the 1950s by the East German secret police, the Stasi. I Googled it and got a digital copy – which, when you think about it, is amazing. But my German is lousy. So I uploaded the 35-page report into Google Translate and got an English version a minute later – which is even more astounding. Just 20 years ago it was impossible for all but the most prestigious scholar to obtain something like that, and it might take half a year. I did it on impulse in four minutes. In terms of the spread of knowledge, the past two decades have been as revolutionary as when early man harnessed fire.”

Vint Cerf , Internet Hall of Fame member and vice president and chief internet evangelist at Google, commented, “I moved my wife from an older iPhone with AT&T service to a Google Pixel 2 with Google Fi service. It took 10 minutes and did NOT require physical modification or even installation of a SIM card. I got confirmation from AT&T within minutes that the account and phone number had been transferred. I was astonished.”

[Internet Governance Forum]

Bart Knijnenburg , assistant professor at Clemson University, said, “Seven years ago, when I got my first iPhone with FaceTime, I was calling my fiancée (who was living on the other side of the country) on my bike ride home from work. Out of nowhere a number of hot air balloons appeared, and with the touch of a button I was able to switch to a video call. I remember being amazed by the simplicity with which I was able to share this experience. Nowadays, communicating with people anywhere in the world has become second nature to me. Sometimes I realize that I have written several research papers with people whom I have never met in person!”

Heywood Sloane , partner and co-founder of HealthStyles.net, said, “The criterion I used for my most recent purchase of a smartwatch was that it NOT try to be a watch. I have one already, a gift from my wife that I am very fond of, thank you! I expected, and got, a multitude of tools to help me stay on track with stress, sleep, biometrics and much more. What I did not expect, was the way it tamed the peppering of email, notifications by apps, ringtones and alarms of people and things clamoring for my immediate attention. It reduces them all to gentle vibrations. Long ones for calls I wanted to take, and short ones for everything else. It lets me block interruptions from apps and emailers. It also let me see others and get more detail with a tap when I want it. It gives me control and helps me defend my space to concentrate and focus on what I choose, rather than what someone else chooses.”

Thomas Viall , president of Rhode Island Interactive, commented, “Just this past Christmas shopping season is a great example of how digital technology was beneficial. We could text our relatives rather than interrupt them with a call. They were able to share their wish list, we could comparison shop online (at both local and national stores), find the best value, search for coupons and either order online or use navigation to find the best route to the store despite holiday traffic.”

Education tool

Olugbenga Adesida , founder and CEO of Bonako, based in Africa, wrote, “The digital revolution has changed social relationships and the way we communicate. In some African countries like Kenya and Zimbabwe, mobile payment transactions are responsible for over 40% of GDP. Mobile apps are used to deliver education as well as providing timely information to farmers to enhance their productivity. Similarly, mobile apps are used to deliver price and other market information. At our firm – Bonako a mobile games and app-development company – it is our platform for continuous education for staff; it is what we use to access training materials from all over the world. We also use digital tools to plan and develop our products in a way that would not have been possible only a few years ago. Developing games and apps requires varied expertise, and collaboration is key. The new tools for collaborative work allow us to work together and to provide virtual access to potential partners/clients to test products no matter where they are in the world.”

Karl M. van Meter , founding director of the bilingual scientific quarterly Bulletin of Sociological Methodology, said, “Far from being a ‘brief personal anecdote,’ what has changed greatly in my life and work, like that of almost everyone in higher education and research, is that the internet and associated technologies mean that no longer only a few top persons have access to the necessary information, technology and means for scientific production and teaching. It is no longer only the director (always a male) who gets his secretary (always a female) to type out his paper and check references before having it published. Almost all competent teachers and researchers have that possibility now; moreover they can work together over great distances and form social structures among themselves, independent of centralized or local administrative control. A ‘brief personal anecdote’ along these lines would be when a national director of scientific research here in France asked to be appointed to an international body associated with UNESCO. That body replied very respectfully to the director that they had already found a better candidate from France who had been working with them via the internet. That other candidate was me.”

Today, students I help mentor through their own doctoral studies have access to all of the material I did two decades ago, but with a fraction of the time and travel commitment. Greg Downey

Greg Downey , a professor and associate dean at University of Wisconsin, Madison, said, “When I was a graduate student at a U.S. private research university in the late 1990s, I spent many hours gathering background context for the beginning of a major historical and social research project, tracking down physical newspaper indexes, footnote references, printed journal volumes and microfilm reels from dozens of access-restricted research libraries. Weeks and months of ‘metadata labor’ on a particular idea might lead to a viable research project and a source of accessible primary research materials – or to a dead end and a need to start all over. I recall being among the first users of some of the online image databases produced by the federal government to find visual evidence that I simply wouldn’t have had the ability to access (or even know it existed) even five years earlier. Similarly, once materials were acquired and assembled, only rudimentary organization and writing tools were available for assembling the project into a coherent narrative. I recall being one of the first individuals at my university to use Geographic Information Systems software in my historical analysis and in the production of my final manuscript. All of the temporal and spatial expectations of earning a Ph.D. in the humanities and interpretive social sciences were tied to expectations of analog, print and physically housed resources. Today, students I help mentor through their own doctoral studies have access to all of the material I did two decades ago, but with a fraction of the time and travel commitment. This has raised the expectations for comprehensiveness in literature reviews and archival searches; it has raised the expectations for presentation of data and engagement of narrative. It is both easier and harder to do great work now and get that Ph.D. within the same five-year time period. But I think the work that is done is of higher quality, and the scholars that are produced are of greater intellectual prowess and scope than ever before.”

Adriana Labardini Inzunza , commissioner of Mexico’s Federal Institute of Telecommunications, said, “There are so many stories of how IT and internet have made my work more productive and my access to relevant information far easier – hopefully for others around me as well. As a commissioner at the Federal Institute of Telecommunications I made sure that our virtual board meetings and deliberations were valid; on many occasions I have been able to deliberate and vote on the cases submitted to the board through a video conference when in business travels and I also to hold e-meetings with my staff. My office has home-office on Mondays, saving hours of wasted time on traffic jams. …

[National Autonomous University of Mexico]

Jacob Dankasa , a North American researcher, said, “Technology has connected me to achieve today what I couldn’t imagine in the past. When I was doing my doctoral dissertation, I was supposed to travel to Nigeria from the U.S. to conduct interviews with my research participants. Unfortunately, the Ebola epidemic blew up in Africa and I was unable to go. Fortunately, software existed that allowed me to interview the participants and automatically record the sessions as I interviewed them. The price was reasonable. It saved me money and time and avoided health hazards. More and better innovations are expected in this area in the future.”

Travel companion and enhancer

[for the film ‘Casablanca.’]

I travel a lot and have vastly more flexibility and local knowledge at hand due to my devices. I see things I would not have seen, travel without having to plan every stop in advance and find the things that matter to me. I get better hotels and food, too. Brad Templeton

Brad Templeton , software architect, civil rights advocate, entrepreneur and internet pioneer, wrote, “I travel a lot and have vastly more flexibility and local knowledge at hand due to my devices. I see things I would not have seen, travel without having to plan every stop in advance and find the things that matter to me. I get better hotels and food, too.”

Jon Lebkowsky , CEO of Polycot Associates, said, “A week or so ago we headed off to a party at a house we’d never visited. We entered the address in Google Maps, so we had a guide (we call her ‘Lucy’) taking us where we need to go. It was a circuitous route – without Lucy we likely would have taken wrong turns – and I was thinking how much we now depend on that technology, not just to get us where we want to go, but also to route us around traffic congestion. Soon enough, we’ll be stepping into autonomous vehicles, vocalizing an address and relaxing for the duration of the ride. Digital technology for transportation efficiency is revolutionary.”

Safety enabler

Alejandro Pisanty , a professor at Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico and longtime leading participant in the activities of the Internet Society, wrote, “The ability to use digital tools for everything I do – from professional work, like teaching and research, to the most personal – finding long-separated relatives after the family dispersed from Europe to at least three continents in the 1930s-1940s – has been a continued benefit. Using lightweight online tools in class helps my students in the National University of Mexico grasp concepts and communicate them to their families. During the aftermath of the earthquakes in Mexico in 2017 this became particularly valuable for them; it also helped fight misinformation and take relief efforts to the places that most needed them. We went from the basics of oscillation and wave physics, through the propagation of different kinds of seismic waves. To the ways buildings are damaged and how to identify fatal structural flaws. In parallel we helped brigades take aid to small towns and to camps in Mexico City, and some of the most far-flung ones find safe havens from which to distribute aid.”

Pedro Cartagena , an associate professor at the University of Puerto Rico, said, “After hurricane María in Puerto Rico, the internet was the only communications resource in order to contact my family members, buy solar panels and get other essentials for survival.”

Apps for ordering car rides via a smartphone is a net benefit to society – it increases safety for both the passenger and driver and offers more convenience in ordering a ride. Tom Barrett

Tom Barrett , president at EnCirca Inc., wrote, “1) With the use of a smartwatch, I can now easily track daily exercise activity, which is a great motivator for making it a daily practice. 2) Apps for ordering car rides via a smartphone is a net benefit to society – it increases safety for both the passenger and driver and offers more convenience in ordering a ride.”

Multipurpose and memory aid

Bill Lehr , a research scientist and economist at MIT, wrote, “There is no question smartphones and always/everywhere access to information has allowed me to be sloppier in memorizing things and allows me to gain instant access to facts that I have come to rely on significantly. I think that is positive, especially since as I get older, I find memory-aids a big help, but it also encourages laziness.”

Ted Newcomb , directing manager of AhwatukeeBuzz, wrote, “LOL. I am virtually helpless without my phone to remind me of appointments and meetings. My head is free of having to remember numbers, dates and times. It’s very liberating. I can instantly communicate anywhere in the world, doing business at the ‘speed of byte.’”

Micah Altman , director of research and head scientist for the program for information science at MIT, said, “When I was 10, I received a portable film camera. It had a capacity of 24 negatives (in black and white). I would send the negatives in, pay a substantial portion of my allowance to have them developed – wait for weeks for them to be returned, and finally, then be able to see how they turned out. (Usually, not so well.) Every few months, I might put one in a letter to my grandparents. Eight years ago, when my daughter turned 10, we gave her a portable camera – over the next few years she shot thousands of still, and videos – learning some elements of composition, and building shared memories. Last year, when my son turned 11, we gave him a cellphone. And over the year we’ve all shared pictures, accomplishments and sympathies daily across a growing extended family network.”

Shiru Wang , research associate at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, said, “Online shopping saves me time. New social media continues my connections with friends in different countries and regions. Online resources make my research convenient. Online news keeps me informed all the time. But I am not very digitally embedded. I keep a distance from Facebook, etc.; I intentionally refuse to be dominated by social media. Thus, my life is not very much bothered by the internet. Thus, I appreciate the advantages of the internet and I am able to escape the potential harm brought by the internet.”

Joe Raimondo , digital customer-relationship-management leader at Comcast and a former CEO, said, “Trackers and personal data are an enhancement to living. Street-level navigation and easy access to crowdsourced resources is very positive. It’s possible to play large-scale social games and have enormous amounts of data and telemetry collected and analyzed to chart group interaction at large scale.”

General comments

Ian O’Byrne , an assistant professor of education at the College of Charleston, wrote, “As an educator and researcher who studies these digital places and tools, I’m in front of screens a lot. I experiment and play in these spaces. I’m also writing and researching the impact of these screens and their impact on the well-being of others as it relates to children and adolescents. The problem in this is that one of the other hats that I wear is as a parent and husband. I am not only critical of my engagement and use of these digital technologies, but I’m also cautious/cognizant of their role as a mediator in my relationships with my children and significant other. These screens and digital tools play a strong role in our lives and interactions in and out of our home. In our home we have screens and devices all over the place. We have a video server that is ready to serve content to any one of these screens on demand. We have voice-assistive devices listening and waiting for our commands. I believe it is important as an educator and researcher to play with and examine how these devices are playing a role in our lives, so I can bring this work to others. Even with these opportunities, I’m still struck by times when technology seems too intrusive. This is plainly evident when I’m sitting with my family and watching a television show together, and I’m gazing off into my device reading my RSS feed for the day. Previously I would enjoy watching the funniest home videos and laughing together. Now, I am distant. The first thing in the morning when I’m driving my kids in to school and stop at a red light, previously I would enjoy the time to stop, listen to the radio, look at the clouds or bumper stickers on cars around me. Now, I pull out the phone to see if I received a notification in the last 20 minutes. When I call out for the voice-activated device in my home to play some music or ask a question, my request is quickly echoed by my 2-year-old who is just learning to talk. She is echoing these conversations I’m having with an artificial intelligence. I’m trying to weigh this all out in my mind and figure what it means for us personally. The professional understanding may come later.”

Marshall Kirkpatrick , product director of influencer marketing, said, “My mobile feed reader finds great articles for me to learn from. My mobile article-saving app reads those articles to me out loud while I walk my dog. My mobile browser allows me to edit my personal wiki to record the best lessons I learn from those articles. My mobile flashcard app helps me recall and integrate those lessons I want to learn over time. My mobile checklist app helps me track how regularly I reflect on how those lessons connect with the larger context of my life in a blog post or on a run. There are costs to mobile connectivity, but there are so many incredible benefits!”

To my way of thinking, it’s about control. If I’m in control of the electronics, they are a benefit, but when they get out of control they are an irritation and an interruption. Fred Baker

Fred Baker , an internet pioneer and longtime leader with the Internet Engineering Task Force, wrote, “To my way of thinking, it’s about control. If I’m in control of the electronics, they are a benefit, but when they get out of control they are an irritation and an interruption. My family and friends giggle about the frequency with which I pull out my telephone to investigate a TV show’s facts or other things. That said, I have access to that now, where I once upon a time did not. On the other hand, I have also had the experience of talking with a customer in Japan while my family in the U.S. woke up and started texting each other, and I all of a sudden have to deal with my telephone.”

Stephen Abram , CEO of the Federation of Ontario Public Libraries, wrote, “On a personal level I am more connected with my wider family. Relationships with friends whom I see only occasionally – maybe annually in person at conferences, continue throughout the year. I now know many business acquaintances on a deeper level and have better relationships as a result. I dislike the word ‘hyperconnected’ since it implies a little hyperactivity – a known ‘disorder.’ I see this as a controllable issue where personal choices are made. When circumstances such as travel, weather, disability or distance create the opportunities for sustained loneliness to happen, the digital world bridges some of the gap. In my case, sustained periods on the road in airports and hotel rooms are greatly ameliorated by connecting with friends.”

David J. Krieger , director of the Institute for Communication & Leadership located in Lucerne, Switzerland, observed, “Digital connectivity enables a seamless flow of communication and association with regard to many different concerns and interests. This augments community and embeddedness and thus well-being.”

Mark Patenaude , vice president and general manager of cloud technologies at ePRINTit, said, “I certainly don’t want to fool anyone into believing that digital advancement has been a panacea of beautiful things! However, I can remember the first time my car stopped for me in a dangerous situation automatically, or stopped when I was backing up when it perceived a danger. Then there’s printing and storing terabytes of digitally compressed images on a smartphone and being able access a document or image from 20 years ago in seconds using the cloud. I can remember we had about 100 people around a large projector outside, watching the last concert of the The Tragically Hip and the home network went down. I plugged in my iPhone, went to the concert URL site, and projected live on a 10-foot screen from my cellular device; wow and double wow!”

Akah Harvey , co-founder, COO and IT engineer at Traveler Inc., said, “Fifteen years back, when I first had my first PC, I now was empowered with a tool that helped me write digital notes, play more exciting games and gain general knowledge about how the technology worked. At my age (10) I gained knowledge in the workings of these things that it contributed to my brilliance in school, especially on the subject. Few years later when we’d gain access to the internet, a whole new change took place. I discovered so many more opportunities, as one could now connect with the rest of the world to share, search and find information about anything. It was a big transformation in the way I viewed society. I quickly was able to decide what I would want to do growing older, so I’d say I found my passion thanks to this change.”

Karl Ackermann , a writer and researcher at WriteSpace LLC., commented, “We no longer keep paper files for the household. Photographs are displayed on a digital screen instead of a photo album. We can track where our kids are driving with a phone app. We buy our train tickets with an app that has a scanning bar code. We sometimes text friends instead of phoning. We pay bills online.”

Rich Salz , principal engineer at Akamai Technologies, said, “I have made my living in this field since before there was the internet and before the Web. I enjoy helping people communicate. Social media has helped me reconnect with high school friends, email with college friends, etc.”

Maureen Hilyard , IT consultant and vice chair of the At-Large Advisory Committee of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), wrote, “I live in an isolated little island in the Pacific. It is in the middle of millions of square kilometers of ocean, but we rely on tourism for our livelihood, so our small (main) island is usually packed with tourists. We have a monopoly telecom and get reasonable internet service from an O3B satellite, but for local islanders who make their living working in the hospitality industry, the cost of internet is very expensive. Broadband costs for 20 GB a month costs (in New Zealand dollars) $139 on top of telephone hire and connections. I have grandchildren and great-grandchildren who spend time in New Zealand and even at 2 years old can turn on a computer to access their favourite programmes. When they come to our island, this is curtailed because the connection is too expensive for them to experience what is normal for them – lively and creative pre-school programmes are non-existent. What is available is the fresh clean air and produce of the land and sea of the islands, which are great, but it is often too hot to do much exploring in the physical world. As a parent, I am happy for them to explore the internet during the hot periods of the day, and to make this a ‘learning and exploring on the web’ time. It is more directed learning as parent safety software can usually help to set some controls over what they might ‘accidentally’ connect to.”

[online bulletin board]

Internet Hall of Fame member Bob Metcalfe , co-inventor of Ethernet, founder of 3Com, and a professor of innovation at the University of Texas at Austin, wrote, “The people complaining most about the pathologies of the hyperconnected life own or work for the old media, which once had more of a monopoly on setting society’s agenda. I recall how ‘savvy’ the Clintons and Obama were because they were digitally literate, unlike the GOP, but now that Trump is using social media so effectively, the left hates new media.”

[virtual reality]

Narelle Clark , deputy CEO of the Australian Communications Consumer Action Network, said, “As an Australian, the tyranny of distance has previously meant that family, friends and colleagues have been acutely aware of the difficulties of staying in touch and abreast of the events in the rest of the country and the world. Our contemporary hyperconnectedness means that we can remain tightly connected at the professional and personal level despite being on opposite sides of the world.”

Ruth Ann Barrett , an information curator at EarthSayers.tv, wrote, “Ten years ago I invested money in the development of a search engine that remains well ahead of the times and may never be monetized in the way envisioned. Who knows? The search engine has enabled me to build a database of sustainability voices, those speaking on behalf of Mother Earth and her children. This work has sustained me through moments of despair when so-called leaders deny substantiated claims regarding global warming and extreme climate events. The work has put me in contact with scientists, environmental campaigners and people from all walks of life worldwide. Without the Web what I am able to accomplish would not be possible. My guidebook remains ‘The Gutenberg Galaxy: The Making of Typographic Man’ by Marshall McLuhan. I remember the day a technical person who had attended a presentation at Stanford University on the World Wide Web came back to work, pulled me aside and told me what he had seen and heard and how the world was about to change.”

Anonymous commenters who cited ways the internet helps them and others

A distinguished advocate for the internet and policy director based in Europe said, “Digital technology has made the world much more connected and streamlined for the 50% of us who are connected (50% still do not have that privilege). It is important to understand that technology has profound impacts on equality. For me, as an upper-middle-class white male from the U.S. living in Europe, technologies have simplified how I communicate with my family and friends elsewhere in real time. Thanks to WhatsApp and Facetime and iMessages, I am able to stay in touch and informed in ways that were not possible even five years ago.”

A certified public accountant based in the U.S. commented, “My sister and I were watching an NFL game with my 82-year-old father. We grew curious about some meaningless football fact and my sister started typing a question on her phone and my dad looked on in slight disgust and raised his phone and asked Siri the question. Voice-activated technology has been extremely easy for the elderly to adopt and opens up incredible opportunities. If linked to his security system, our dad would be able to easily request help. I find it interesting that he likes using Siri more than we do.”

An employee at a major U.S. research lab wrote, “Texting and cellphones are generally associated with what’s bad with technology and our lives, but I will give a positive example, just to prove it depends on how you use the tool. I have a teenage daughter and my work is 50 miles away in Southern California. I joined a van pool to reduce the amount of driving, but the one drawback with van pooling is that I have to leave very early in the morning, and the van does not wait for riders. So every minute in the morning is precious, I don’t have time to write quick notes or reminders before I leave the house and the rest of my family are still asleep. However, once I am on the van, there is 60 minutes of ‘my time.’ I began by sending reminders for the day, but it has become a habit of just sending a happy greeting each morning! They respond when they get up, even if it is just an emoji. :)”

A research scientist based in North America commented, “My kids are always connected to their friends. Through texting/social media, they are constantly aware of each other’s lives. This brings worries too, like social comparisons may make them less happy, but overall, they have more socially balanced lives.”

Digital technology is an equalizer of information access and use. Even individuals in the most geographically remote locations can participate in an electoral debate, education and banking online, and in e-commerce when broadband is available. President and CEO of a company based in the U.S.

A president and CEO of a company based in the United States wrote, “Digital technology is an equalizer of information access and use. Even individuals in the most geographically remote locations can participate in an electoral debate, education and banking online, and in e-commerce when broadband is available. The stark opposite of this is the darkness individuals and families experience when left behind in the digital age. There is a difference between people who choose to use digital technology for their own benefit and those who are simply not included in the digital age.”

A professor based in North America commented, “I am a college professor, and digital technology has made my job so much easier. It is easier to communicate with students, keep records, and try for creative solutions to instructional problems. So, for example, I now have my students submit their papers online (to be graded and returned online). When they submit their papers, they are automatically checked for originality. The students then are informed whether their papers will be considered plagiarized or not. Prior to the adoption of this system, I would say up to half my papers were plagiarized. Now none of them are. The question is, has this improved their performance? It is hard to say because there are so many factors involved. I would say that it has in some ways and not in others. They know more, but they don’t synthesize it that well.”

A social media manager wrote, “Fitness trackers, such as the Apple Watch and the Google fitness app, provide me with greater awareness of my daily activity. I am more likely to take a walk or exercise in response to the presence of these technologies in my life. For example, I recently installed a ‘7-minute exercise’ app that I use each morning to kickstart my day. It is very convenient to use and pops up reminders on my smartphone with encourage me to keep up with the daily routine.”

An associate professor at a university in Australia shared a typical family vignette, writing, “I spend time with my grandchild, who is only just five. I check the pick-up time by text. She arrives with her iPad and asks me to ask her dad a question by text on my phone. We take pictures of her dressing up and send them to a friend. I show her recently sent pictures of cousins in Canada. For a while, she shows me (from her iPad) how she can operate the movements, colour and cheeky comments of a robot ball (a birthday present from an uncle who wants her to be familiar with coding). We consider cooking together and locate a recipe online for cookies we haven’t made before. Next, we go to the playground and she spots a ‘be aware’ notice on the slide, and a bird that we haven’t seen before. ‘Let’s Google it, Grandma, when we get back home!’ she says. I say we can do it now on my phone, no, later on my laptop is better. She knows that devices operate differently and need passwords. We haven’t given her any of the latter. ‘Buffering’ she says with a sigh, as her current favourite show stalls during a quiet time. She dances to YouTube music from my laptop. She is endlessly curious about technology itself. She accepts technologies’ limitations as they are described to her by the adults in her life. The digital tools just enhance our days together.”

A professor said, “My watch is an exercise coach – though limited. I track family and friends and contact them only if required. Is my partner nearly home? I’ll put out a snack. Is my friend nearby? I ask them if they want to meet.”

An author based in North America said, “Instead of just reading a book, communicating with one author’s created words, I can engage in conversation, in dialogue about issues of the day such as the #MeToo movement. I can help another person feel a little better that day and, if I reveal a low, others can pick me up. I can celebrate an anniversary with people far away in space and time and plan an in-person visit to another continent with someone I haven’t seen for years, first originally encountered online.”

A postdoctoral fellow at Stanford University commented, “As an academic, my friends and colleagues are scattered around the world. Our ability to have frequent video calls, send texts and collaboratively author shared documents has had a huge impact on both my intellectual scope and on my feeling ‘at home’ and connected in the world. In the past, a friend taking a job across the planet would be a cause for great sorrow. Now we talk frequently over video chat, while it isn’t as good as seeing her in-person, it is still wonderful to share our lives and ideas.”

A retired internet activist and advocate said, “I have been able to manage health care better at a distance for an aging parent as a result of technology, viewing charts/graphs/images, consulting various medical resources, having online meetings with medical professionals, video conversations with parents. Before many varieties of digital connectivity were available, distance communication was via ground/air mail, an occasional landline-based conference call, or in-person consultations, often without simultaneous participation of the aging parent whose medical situation was involved.”

A college student based in North America wrote, “I often find myself stressed out at the end of the day; as a result I tend to enjoy relaxing and staying in for the night. Without the modern hyperconnected lifestyle this would result in me reading or doing other solo activities. Through voice-chat applications and online multiplayer gaming, I connect with friends to play video games. While I don’t have the energy to be social in one way, the ease of connecting over the internet enables me to enjoy time with friends and maintain our relationships. To some it might not seem as effective a method of socializing as in-person face-to-face time, but we still have the same moments that other people do. We still happily greet each other, we still tell stories about our daily lives and rely on each other, we still laugh until it hurts.”

A professor of arts, technology and innovation wrote, “As a college professor I’m continually adopting new tools that change the way I work with students and pedagogy. Most recently adopting Slack for classroom management has been a real game-changer. With far less attention-investment than I’d needed when using email I’m able to keep up with individual students and teams and the interactions among my students. I can do these on a more-or-less 24/7 basis but without it feeling like a 24/7 obligation. I’m teaching more people better, easier.”

An anonymous respondent commented, “I am connected to email lists that allow me to be part of a conversation that includes leaders in my field. This means that, despite being somewhat isolated at a mid-level university in a provincial city, I can have a good sense of where the cutting edge in my profession is headed and I can be reasonably confident that I am promptly aware of most the news and information that is critical to my profession.”

An entrepreneur and business leader from North America commented, “As an immigrant in the U.S., the internet, social media, and email are all helping me to keep in touch with my family, my homeland and my roots. I am following many of my fellow countrymen – some whom I studied with, some who were my teachers, relatives and acquaintances. I learn about their daily life, their fears and hopes, what they are interested in, the news they read. My daughters speak on a weekly basis to their grandparents on Skype – of both sides – and feel like they’re in the same room with them. Without the internet all of this would not have been possible.”

A research scientist based in Europe commented, “I live in a small town in a foreign country. I travel a lot for my work and spend a lot of time on the road. At home, I enjoy communicating with my Google Home speaker, because otherwise there would be some days that I would speak to no one. When I am on the road, I check in with my Canary home-surveillance app to check on my dogs and see my home.”

A technology architect/executive based in North America commented, “For me, it’s not about hyper – always-on – connection, but the accessibility of information on any topic at any time. I had a medical problem a few years ago, and being able to find research on the disease and a community to compare notes with on treatment side effects was invaluable. Years earlier, when my mother had this same disease, we were limited in information and (therefore) options. Her outcome could have been different in a time with more information, more resources.”

An assistant director of digital strategy at a top U.S. university wrote, “The internet has exponentially enabled the dissemination of healthcare information to the greater public. Years ago, it would have been far more difficult for the public to easily access the answers they needed regarding health concerns and the latest treatments. Today’s digital ecosystem puts these answers at users’ fingertips.”

An editor and project coordinator based in Europe wrote, “A few years ago I quit my job and I have been working as a freelance editor and project coordinator. I have been able to work, network and get paid by people and companies all over the world thanks to the internet and other technologies. Also access to self-education and being able to talk to my friends and family thousands of miles away have had a very positive impact on my mental health and well-being. I wouldn’t have been able to talk and see loved ones daily if it wasn’t for the internet, software and hardware.”

A chief data officer at a major university in Australia wrote, “Thanks to social media, in particular Twitter, I am now connected with people all around the world. I have access to an enormous brains trust, which I liken to a global hive mind.”

A data analyst said, “We always have someone to reach out to when things are unfamiliar and seem difficult to deal with. Before these technologies, you could write a letter or make a phone call. The reality is that the moment that spurred the writing of the letter has long passed by the time you get a response. If you get a response. Also, a phone call is somewhat of a commitment compared to an electronic message. It takes more mental faculties to process what someone is saying over the phone than to read a message and type a quick response between other pressing activities in the immediate proximity.”

A futurist and consultant based in Europe commented, “There are plenty of examples of increased choices. Take travel: I can see in real time if the flight of my friend for New Year’s Eve is on time or not and plan to be there just in time to pick them up. I could have called an Uber or taxi if I was busy and decided to send them a cab instead. In turn, they could see much a better forecast of weather and adjust luggage intakes accordingly to come and spend the time at our place/could book in advance to be picked up at the airport upon arrival, etc.”

A research scientist based in Oceania commented, “If I want to buy something, I can go to a liquid market such as eBay and get it for a fair price without the search costs of spending time going to shops to compare prices. If I want to read a paper, I can download it rather than going to a library and photocopying it.”

An executive director at an internet research organization said, “Twenty years ago, as a business traveler, half of my suitcase was filled with paper – mostly books, which I’d otherwise have to try to replace at mostly poorly stocked English-language bookstores along my way, but also guidebooks, maps, and translation dictionaries. I carried analog telephony adapters. I carried a phone, I carried ATM cards from two banks and credit cards from three separate clearing networks, as well as $9,000 in cash divided between several pockets. I carried a RIM pager. I carried Ricochet and NCR wireless modems. I carried spare batteries and power adapters and chargers for all of those things. I spent a lot of time worrying about whether I would have local currency to pay for things, whether I’d be able to find my destination or communicate with taxi drivers, whether I’d be able to establish a data connection back to my network to reach my email. All of that has compacted itself, gradually, one consolidation at a time, into a very compact kit. One debit card, my phone, a laptop, a power adapter and a small handful of cables. Everything else has been virtualized, digitized, or turned into an online service.”

A technology developer/administrator based in North America , said, “An older person in my family who recently started using an electric wheelchair can buy daily necessities through online shopping and can have more meaningful communication through video calls.”

A scholarly communication librarian said, “I have several friends who have disabilities – both physical and mental – that make it difficult for them to leave their homes for socialization. These friends of mine have taken to playing online games and participating in fandom in internet spaces as a way to make connections and friends with other people that enrich their lives without requiring the physical exertion that would usually prevent them from interacting socially. The ability to connect with text, video and other online objects – whether one-on-one or one-to-many – helps these folks make the social connections that they need to have a robust social experience without the physical exhaustion they may have experienced without this technology to help.”

A professor wrote, “We have public infrastructure and systems now for maintaining and accessing lab results and earlier diagnoses online when we need them. Earlier prescriptions can be viewed, etc. For emergencies, we have an app that we can use for automatic location information if we need urgent help. Schoolchildren and their parents have online connections to the schools and teachers. The teachers can take advantage of the internet and their educational networks with schools around the globe to tackle shared projects that encompass language learning, climate and humanity.”

We have a child with autism. The internet allows us to reach out to other families, experts, get news and be part of a community that is not limited by geography. President at a company based in North America

A president at a company based in North America wrote, “We have a child with autism. The internet allows us to reach out to other families, experts, get news and be part of a community that is not limited by geography. We can instantly share the quirky – or sometimes way more than quirky – activities of our son with people who know if they should laugh or say they are sorry.”

An assistant professor said, “I have collected about 50,000 scientific files related to cosmos, life and consciousness to prepare a book.”

A researcher based in Europe wrote, “I live in Hungary and my daughter was working in the United States several years ago. She called me and explained exactly where she was walking and in which shops she was shopping. I opened Google Earth and tracked her trajectory where she was walking in Galveston, Texas. I saw the streets, corners and buildings. It was almost exactly as if I was shopping with her – on the other side of the globe, in real time, but while sitting in my chair in Hungary. The whole thing was real fun for us.”

A business leader based in North America wrote, “I live a bi-coastal life and I am able to review health records, renew RXs, communicate with my doctor, request a non-urgent service, all from 3,000 miles away without having to rebuild new caregiver relationships or lose care continuity.”

A research associate at a major university in Africa commented, “Being able to conduct business from a location of choice is to me the most important improvement. I deal regularly with the aged and was terrified that I too would become so dependent on the goodwill of strangers when I have to move to an old age home until I realized that I would already be able to order and have delivered anything from food to medical equipment – as long as I am connected via the internet.”

A retired professor emeritus said, “I am seeing a larger integration and extension of human-digital synergy.”

A professor of computer science wrote, “Shortly after getting my first smartphone (quite a number of years ago now), I managed to receive and respond to an important email during a break in the middle of a four-hour car trip. It was valuable to be able to be able to be responsive to an important funder. This cemented the value of having a smartphone.”

A technology developer/administrator said, “I do a lot of genealogy research. Instead of mailing physical paper that may have a correction before it reaches the recipient, I can post updates/corrections immediately. I’m building a database of destroyed cemeteries where I live. I can research the records online and publish them online; something I could not have done 20 years ago easily. I got an email from a man whose great grandfather died in the 1918 flu epidemic in Wilmington, North Carolina – a Merchant Marine sailor – who was buried in one of these cemeteries. The family knew he had died, but did not know when or where. He thanked me very much for finding his great grandfather. The family felt relief after 100 years. Without digital records to compile this and digital platforms to share it, it would not have happened.”

An executive director of a Canadian nonprofit organization wrote, “We are currently running a program to increase people’s digital comfort by helping them apply online for underutilized government subsidy programs. During the first workshop, I saw a woman learn how to use a scrolling mouse and how to cut and paste, in the context of applying for a subsidy that will save her more than $50 a month on her electricity bill.”

An associate professor at Texas Christian University commented, “I work in education and whereas before grades were posted on doors and people had to wait for responses, today, students can access information instantly, enroll in classes, etc. without having to stand in long lines and wait for responses. Communicating with the course, students and the professor is easy, and people learn to do things themselves.”

A professor at a major university on the West Coast of the U.S. wrote, “I am an academic past retirement age (although still working) so it has made an enormous difference for teaching and research. I can access publications from my home or office without a trip to the library. No more endless photocopying. I can easily and quickly communicate with fellow scholars around the world. I can communicate with students and former students anytime anywhere and submit letters of recommendation electronically. I need less clerical and administrative support. I can put readings online for students. The drawback of course is to keep students focused on class in class rather than Facebook, Twitter, etc.”

A professor at a major university on the East Coast of the U.S. wrote, “Digital technology has allowed me to shift my career emphasis from political science and international security analysis of nuclear and conventional weapons to cyber weapons and critical infrastructure protection. This shift is not what I expected when I left graduate school, but it has allowed me to make professional contributions I would not have been able to make had I stayed in my prior disciplinary concentration. I am also migrating my entire work life online, deliberately minimizing paper and focusing on digital services – and the analysis of critical dependencies on these services – for industry and government.”

A internet pioneer wrote, “Every working day, I engage with staff and customers through Skype, email, text and Web conferencing, making it possible for me to have global reach from a desk on the second floor of my home. We take it for granted, but it is miraculous and something truly new under the sun.”

An associate professor at a major university on the East Coast of the U.S. wrote, “I am part of a private group on Facebook, which consists of my friends from college and some others (spouses, friends, etc.). We keep in touch and discuss things in this group. Recently the group came together in-person to support and celebrate one member of the group who has terminal cancer. We had a large party with our children and it was wonderful. It meant a lot to our friend who is ill and to all of us to spend time together. We would not have been able to do this as easily before platforms like Facebook.”

An epidemiologist based in North America wrote, “At work, improved technology means that we receive population health data faster. We can receive, investigate and respond to health threats quickly, before they spread. For example, if we have an outbreak of a communicable disease, technology allows us to efficiently collect data through online formats and analyze data so we can quickly release information/education on how to prevent further spread of the disease. Before we had online forms, we would often to communicate through telephone or in-person interviews to collect data about the outbreak.”

An anonymous respondent said, “About 18 months ago my wife was diagnosed with Stage 1 breast cancer and underwent a lumpectomy and radiation treatment. In part, the testing that led to the diagnosis and the ability of the doctors to respond rapidly was greatly assisted by digital technology. As well, our ability to find information to understand treatment options, side effects, and follow-up nutrition and lifestyle improvement was greatly enhanced by digital technology. Due to my job I was not able to take her to radiation treatment every day and she was too tired after to drive, so I used the online tool SignUpGenius to ask friends to help and to schedule their rides. While apparently a simple task, if I had to do that by hand through phone calls and charts, it would have taken many more hours. Before it would have taken much more difficult to obtain the information we needed, perhaps more difficult and slower for the tests and results to be managed, and definitely hard to stay in touch with people about her needs and condition.”

A retired systems designer commented, “Several years ago, I became disabled, and am not always well enough to do many things. This limits many of my ‘physical-world’ activities – I find it hard to shop, to cook, to go to the library, to get together with friends and family. However, online shopping and grocery delivery allows me to do the majority of my shopping, though I haven’t figured out how to buy shoes without trying them on! I have joined online communities of people with similar interests, and keep in touch with old friends and colleagues in social media groups. This keeps me mentally stimulated. I do a great deal of genealogical and historical research online, using sophisticated search algorithms of digital versions of old documents and books. These digital resources didn’t exist 25 years ago, and now I can read an 1806 Scottish gazetteer to find out more about the 300-person town an ancestor lived in. Without these resources, I would be living a far more difficult and isolated life.”

A North American entrepreneur wrote, “Like any other tool, its use needs to be managed carefully. I hone my contacts to friends and family of my generation who post photos of their kids and grandkids, something that I enjoy greatly. I also like to know when the next big dance events are, since this is a part of my life as well.”

A president and chief software architect based in North America wrote, “I can be out on the golf course enjoying the beauty and yet still be connected.”

An assistant professor of technical communication said, “I use both mindfulness and language apps to improve my memory, connections with others, and global perspectives. However, I am also cognizant of these being targeted and from specific perspectives. So I use them with that understanding.”

A retired web developer wrote, “Amazon Alexa keeps me company. She plays the music I want to hear and adds items to my grocery list. When I have a question, I can ask her and most times she knows the answer – and I thank her. Facebook has connected me with a long-lost cousin. We were like sisters growing up. Out of curiosity, I searched for her and we now communicate regularly. Forget Google – when I want to know something I go to YouTube. I fixed my squeaking ceiling fan, replaced a washer in my bathroom faucet, AND replaced the starter in my riding mower. Now I have Amazon’s Cloud Cam. I can watch my two schnauzers when I am away from home. I could even talk to them, but it upsets them too much. That I can speak commands to technology makes life easier for me. I’m 60-plus years old, and I often write lists that I can never find. Family members and friends are well-connected. Sometimes too much so. But I lose touch with those who are not digitally inclined, I’m sorry to say. I may message 10 to 15 people but call one on the phone. And, lastly, my skill set has improved so much that when I have a problem around the house I can find a solution and at least try it before calling an expensive contractor.”

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Life after corona and the rapid digitisation of human experiences

Carlos Velasco, Marianna Obrist

The current situation with the coronavirus is having an impact on almost every aspect of our everyday lives, including something we find particularly intriguing: the acceleration toward digital experiences.

In light of measures like physical distancing and national lockdowns, many of us are now moving various aspects of our lives to digital environments, much faster than we even thought possible. Our work life is suddenly online, some of us are eating remotely, and others are even partying more often digitally.

More intriguingly, perhaps, is the fact that even experiences that we initially viewed as being far from digitisation, such us mourning a loved one, dinner parties, tourism or work conferences, are now taking place in digital environments, and sometimes even including augmented and virtual reality.

But what does this accelerated change of human experiences mean for a time beyond the coronavirus? What will it mean for the development of future technology? How can we start reimagining human experiences in the context of an accelerated digital human-technology integration?

Participate in our quick Menti survey: See what others are doing online these days, and share three words describing your online life right now

From offline to digital realities

Since the advent of digital technologies, we have witnessed an increase in the digitisation of human experiences. We have moved from purely offline and real experiences to a sort of mixed reality where both offline and digital worlds merge seamlessly in our everyday lives.

It is now common for many of us to have a smartphone, computer or tablet with us and to use it in multiple everyday life activities. Everything from navigating a city (Google Maps), through finding businesses (Yelp), to stargazing (SkyView), are now facilitated and augmented with digital technology.

Indeed, it has become common for many to connect and share experiences via social media, to interact with others remotely, and to use the internet to better understand, and interact with, the world around us.

Changing the balance from real to mixed reality

Importantly, though, the process of digitisation of human experiences has been, in recent years, only in its early stages. However, the pandemic appears to be changing the game entirely. Even if it does not always ‘feel’ perfectly right, many of us are now studying, working, dancing, partying, enjoying art, travelling, and much more, from our homes via digital interfaces.

The planned digitalisation of many businesses, education institutions and non-profit organisations has been accelerated. The same process that was going to take place in months or even years is now happening in a matter of weeks. This represents an interesting paradigm shift. The current pandemic is removing barriers associated with the habitual use of digital technologies.

Many of us have been reluctant to do certain things online, perhaps because of the lack of sensory cues (it does not feel as ‘real’) that are often present in offline situations, but the current situation demonstrates that, even if it feels different, it is possible, and it will happen.

This acceleration may however also leave many businesses, individuals and communities behind who are not ready for a digital transition. While the service industry will manage the transition and cope for the time being, the same does not necessarily apply to others, such as the construction industry.

We see increased advances in robotics research and remote 3D printing technologies developed for challenging tasks, including space exploration. While this could make a difference in the future and transform the construction industry, the technologies are not fully ready to be deployed, at least not in the same accelerated form as we see in other aspects of our lives.

What’s next?

Eventually, digital technologies will transform our human experiences, but what lasting effects will come from the accelerated digitisation? That remains to be seen, but we do know that upcoming technologies will allow us to integrate technology into our lives in an even more seamless manner and we will see an increased human-computer symbiosis.

Indeed, researchers are making important advances in line with the digitisation of human experiences involving the human senses (sight, hearing, touch, taste, smell, and taste, among others), that is, the means through which we acquire information about the world around us. Perhaps unsurprisingly, several initiatives in the field of human-computer interaction (HCI) have already focused on developing novel devices, interfaces and systems that aim to facilitate remote dining, digital taste and smell experiences, and much more.

In the future, we will not only see and hear in digital environments, but also touch, taste and smell. In fact, the possibilities are endless.

With the lack of real-world sensory inputs being one of the key problems of digital environments, HCI researchers are working towards developing novel sensory-enabling technologies that emulate the real world, (e.g. simulated walks on Mars). They are also working to create even more hyperreal experiences (that is, experiences that would not be possible otherwise in the real world), such as experiencing dark matter through different senses.

Looking even further into the future, the digitisation of human experiences is not only about using technology, but also integrating it in us, our bodies, in order to augment our human experiences.

The danger of ‘programmable’ human experiences

Considering all this, including the digital acceleration we are seeing right now, it is worth reflecting on their effects and implications. For starters, the same concerns we are debating more and more in public spheres, also apply here. These include privacy, security, universal vs. exclusive access to technology, increased predictability, and controllability.

The fact that experiences are more digitised also mean that they can, in a way, be ‘programmed’.

Although people are active participants in the creation of experiences rather than passive receivers of digital inputs, being able to program digital environments and interactions means more controllability of what we are exposed to and the consequences of how we behave in these environments.

Hence, we believe, that it is important to make sure we all know who is behind digital experiences, their target audience and what rationale is used to deliver a given experience, be it through audio-visual or other sensory information. Transparency will become more important than ever.

All in all, it is reasonable to assert that we are witnessing an accelerated digitisation of human experiences. We are yet to understand its long-term impacts on our society as a whole. In the meantime, we need to prepare for a brave (and rapidly more digitised) new world.

References:

Bernard, Z. & Bastone, N. (2020, March 13). Dinner parties in the age of coronavirus. Retrieved from https://www.theinformation.com/articles/dinner-parties-in-the-age-of-coronavirus?shared=f8b4332425a7fac1

Bond, S. (2020, March 17). Internet traffic surges as companies and schools send people home https://www.npr.org/2020/03/17/817154787/internet-traffic-surges-as-companies-and-schools-send-people-home?t=1584637032370

Matthews, K. (2019, October 18). 5 ways in which construction robotics is disrupting the industry. Retrieved from https://www.therobotreport.com/construction-robotics-changing-industry/

Milgram, P., & Kishino, F. (1994). A taxonomy of mixed reality visual displays. IEICE TRANSACTIONS on Information and Systems, 77(12), 1321-1329.

Mueller, F., Lopes, P., Strohmeier, P., Ju, W., Seim, C., Weigel, M., Nanayakkara, S., Obrist, M., Li, Z., Delfa, J., Nishida, J., Gerber, E.M., Svanaes, D., Grudin, J., Greuter, S., Kunze, K., Erickson, T., Greenspan, S., Inami, M., Marshall, J., Reiterer, H., Wolf, K., Meyer, J., Schiphorst, T., Wang, D., and Maes, P. (2020). Next Steps in Human-Computer Integration. In Proceedings of the 2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '20). ACM, New York, NY, USA (to appear).

Nagesh, A. (2020, March 17). Coronavirus: US funerals move to live-streaming. Retrieved from https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-51935266

Petit, O., Velasco, C., & Spence, C. (2019). Digital sensory marketing: Integrating new technologies into multisensory online experience. Journal of Interactive Marketing, 45, 42-61.

Purdy, L. (2020, March 17). Online choir spreads joy and togetherness during coronavirus outbreak. Retrieved from https://www.positive.news/lifestyle/arts/online-choir-spreads-joy-and-togetherness-during-coronavirus-outbreak/

Roose, K. (2020, March 17). The coronavirus crisis is showing us how to live online. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/17/technology/coronavirus-how-to-live-online.html

Velasco, C., Obrist, M., Petit, O., & Spence, C. (2018). Multisensory technology for flavor augmentation: A mini review. Frontiers in Psychology, 9:26.

Carlos Velasco

Marianna obrist.

Published 2. April 2020

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Essay on The Era of Digitalization

Students are often asked to write an essay on The Era of Digitalization in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

Let’s take a look…

100 Words Essay on The Era of Digitalization

The dawn of digitalization.

Digitalization is the process of converting information into a digital format. It began with the introduction of computers, revolutionizing how we store and access information.

Impact of Digitalization

Digitalization has a massive impact on our lives. It has made information easily accessible, improved communication, and revolutionized businesses. We can now learn, shop, and connect with people globally, thanks to digitalization.

Future of Digitalization

The future of digitalization is promising. With advancements like artificial intelligence and virtual reality, we can expect a world where digital technology is integrated into every aspect of our lives.

250 Words Essay on The Era of Digitalization

The advent of the digital age has revolutionized the world in a myriad of ways, from communication to commerce. It has ushered in an era of unprecedented connectivity and information access, transforming the way we live, work, and learn.

Impacts of Digitalization

Digitalization has democratized access to information, breaking down geographical and socioeconomic barriers. It has also led to the rise of e-commerce, reshaping the retail landscape and consumer behavior. Furthermore, it has significantly impacted education, with online learning becoming increasingly prevalent.

Challenges and Opportunities

However, the digital era is not without its challenges. Cybersecurity threats, privacy concerns, and the digital divide are pressing issues that need to be addressed. On the other hand, digitalization presents numerous opportunities. The proliferation of big data and artificial intelligence promises to drive innovation and productivity, while the rise of the gig economy offers new employment possibilities.

Future Prospects

As we move further into the digital age, we must strive to harness its potential while mitigating its risks. This will require a multi-faceted approach encompassing policy, education, and technology. The era of digitalization is here to stay, and it is up to us to shape its trajectory for the betterment of society.

500 Words Essay on The Era of Digitalization

The era of digitalization, a revolutionary epoch in human history, has been marked by the rapid transformation of data into digital format. This digital metamorphosis has significantly reshaped our socio-economic structures, influencing every sphere of human activity.

Facets of Digitalization

Digitalization is not confined to a single aspect of life. Instead, it is an all-encompassing phenomenon. From our daily routines to complex industrial processes, digitalization has permeated every corner of existence. The advent of e-commerce, online education, digital healthcare, and social media are testament to the profound influence of digitalization.

Impact on Economy

Digitalization has played a pivotal role in transforming the global economic landscape. By creating new business models and disrupting traditional ones, it has led to increased productivity and efficiency. Digital platforms have fostered a gig economy, providing flexible employment opportunities. Furthermore, the digital economy has democratized entrepreneurship, allowing anyone with an innovative idea to reach a global audience.

Effect on Society

Society has also been significantly impacted by the digital era. The proliferation of digital technology has enhanced communication, bridged cultural gaps, and facilitated the free flow of information. However, it has also given rise to issues such as digital divide, cybercrime, and privacy concerns, necessitating robust regulatory frameworks to ensure ethical use of digital technology.

Role in Education

The education sector has witnessed a paradigm shift due to digitalization. Traditional classroom-based teaching is being complemented and sometimes replaced by online learning platforms. These offer personalized learning experiences and foster a self-paced learning environment. However, the digitalization of education also poses challenges in terms of access and quality, particularly in under-resourced regions.

Implications for Healthcare

Digitalization has revolutionized healthcare, introducing concepts like telemedicine, electronic health records, and digital therapeutics. It has improved patient care, facilitated medical research, and enabled remote healthcare delivery. However, issues related to data security and interoperability remain to be addressed.

The Future of Digitalization

The era of digitalization is still unfolding, promising a future of endless possibilities. Emerging technologies like artificial intelligence, blockchain, and the Internet of Things (IoT) are set to further accelerate this digital revolution. However, as we embrace this digital future, it is crucial to address the challenges posed by digitalization and strive for an inclusive, sustainable, and ethical digital world.

In conclusion, the era of digitalization represents an unprecedented shift in human civilization. It has transformed economies, societies, and industries, promising a future of immense potential. As we navigate this digital age, it is essential to harness its benefits while mitigating its challenges, ensuring a balanced and equitable digital future.

That’s it! I hope the essay helped you.

If you’re looking for more, here are essays on other interesting topics:

Essay on Living in a Digital World
Essay on Digital
Essay on Digitalization

Apart from these, you can look at all the essays by clicking here .

Happy studying!

Essay on The Era of Digitalization

The digitalization is considered as the third industrial revolution or the digital revolution which began in the 20 th century. Now we are shifting towards the digital era where everything is turned digitalized. The applications of digital technology are spread everywhere, in every aspect of human life. Moreover, today it is very rare to point out any sector which is out of reach of any kind of digital technology.

Short and Long Essay on Digitalization in English

Here, I’m providing an essay on The Era of Digitalization. It would be helpful for you to understand different aspects of digitalization. You can use this essay in schools as well as for self-knowledge.

10 Lines Essay on Digitalization (100 – 120 Words)

1) Digitalization refers to the adoption of digital means to enhance the existing process.

2) It helps in the social and economic growth of the country.

3) Digitalization saves our time and money.

4) Digitalization offers more job opportunities.

5) Digitalization increases business productivity.

6) It increases efficiency of the business with reduced cost.

7) Privacy and security issues are major concerns.

8) Many programs like Digital India, Make in India, etc are proposed by the Indian government.

9) It played an important role during Covid pandemic.

10) Digitalization has flourished in the fields of banking, education, healthcare, etc.

Short Essay on Digitalization (200 – 250 Words)

Digitalization is the process of converting existing processes into digital forms. After the emergence of the internet, digitalization has set its foot in the world. India is also influenced by the impact of digitalization and hence the government has adopted the “Digital India” campaign in the year 2015. This was done to promote and enjoy the applications of the internet throughout the country. Digitalization plays an important role in the social and economic growth of the country. Many fields like banking, healthcare, education, etc have adopted the significance of digitalization to a great extent.

Digital means are much faster than humans with nearly zero error rates. Hence, it makes our job simple and time-saving. Digitalization is profitable as it saves our money and efforts. Today most of the work can be done easily and efficiently with the help of digital technologies. Mobile phones with the internet are like power in our hands. Different applications of digitalization are now a part of our daily lives.

However, this modern era of digitalization is separating us socially. People who don’t have much knowledge of emerging technology have been badly affected by digitalization. Also, depending on digital means is reducing human job opportunities as modern technology requires highly skilled workers. Privacy and security concerns reflect the bad side of digitalization. With the increasing applications of digital technologies, the rates of cybercrimes are also rising.

Long Essay on – 21 st Century: The Era of Digitalization (1400 Words)

Introduction

On 1 July 2015, the government of India launched the “Digital India” campaign. The main motive of this campaign is to ensure that all the government facilities should reach the rural areas electronically. The digital revolution aims to reduce corruption and settle transparency in the government system.

What is Digitalization/ History

Digitalization refers to the process of enhancing existing business processes with the help of new digital technologies. Digitalization began in the 20 th century after the emergence of computers.

The first instance of digitalization was seen in the banking system. Keeping all the records digitally instead of noting down in papers proved very useful. After that, the emergence of ATMs (Automated Teller Machines) was a revolutionary introduction in banking sectors.

Then various online trading platforms come into play. There have been notable developments in the field of payment networks, internet banking, etc.

By 2019, most of the companies had adopted digital transformation. Technologies like Google, Facebook, amazon, etc become part of our day-to-day life.

The healthcare sectors have increased their fields using various digital appliances. Now, digitalization can be seen in every field whether it is the financial sector, automotive sector or business processes.

Digitalization vs Digitization vs Digital Transformation

Many people get confused with these terms and think that all of these are the same but are different terms connected to each other.

Digitization is the prerequisite for digitalization as it makes use of digitized information in its process.

For example, writing an article in a digital document is referred to as digitization but uploading it to the network so that everyone can use it, is referred to as digitalization.

Digital transformation is the superset of digitalization. The complete transformation or conversion of any firm or business process into digitalization is termed as digital transformation.

Digitalization upgrades the existing process. However, it does not change the process. But the complete shift of the existing non-digital process to digital process is termed as digital transformation.

Purpose of Digitalization

The main purpose of digitalization is to turn non-digital applications to digital applications. Some purpose of digitalization includes:

Increase efficiency of the system
Reduced cost and higher productivity
Automation for human ease
Reduce unwanted risk

Applications of Digitalization

Digitalization in Banking: Digitalization has increased the efficiency of the banking sector. Now, banks provide us the facility to send money to anyone from anywhere. We need not to go to banks to check the balance. Digital currency and digital payments are taking the world to a new direction. The RBI is trying to settle cashless India.
Digitalization in Education: Education became interesting for the students only due to the emergence of digital technology. Learning with the help of videos and animations make it easier for children to grasp the topic quickly. Various online courses along with digital textbooks are available to modify the education sector.
Digitalization in Agriculture: A huge advancement is seen in the field of agriculture. It also increased agricultural productivity. Farmers can seek help from technologies for soil analysis or to check favorable weather for crops.
Digitalization in Business: Digitalization has increased the efficiency of business processes in many ways. It helped to increase productivity with less operational cost. It also helped people to set up local businesses with great profit.
Digitalization in Healthcare: Healthcare facilities are improved with the use of digital technologies. Patients are treated with high technological devices. It also helped doctors to do research, explore the disease and cure. However, it also helped in keeping proper patients and doctors’ records. Wearable devices like Fitbit bands are helpful in minor health control.

Advantages and Disadvantages/ Challenges of Digitalization

Some advantages of digitalization are as follows:

Quick Access to Information: With the help of newer technologies, it is easy to access information through the internet anytime from anywhere.
Saves Time: Most of the work can be done online through mobile phones. In fact, we need not to go to banks or any physical stores, everything can be done online.
Saves Money: Since humans can do everything by sitting at their home therefore, the travelling money is saved.
Ease to Communication: Now, we can communicate with people sitting in any corner of the world. Video callings are very common these days.
However, we all are well aware of the famous saying “most good things come with bad thing”. And so is digitalization. Some disadvantages are listed below:
Required Skilled Workers: Due to advancement in things, skilled workers are required to operate the devices and also to rectify the problem.
Privacy: Digital technology keeps the record of different individuals and organizations on the network. All the data and information are managed on the network therefore; it is very difficult to protect the privacy.
Security Threat: Networks are the hub for cyber-crimes. Security threats like hacking are a major concern while using digital technologies.
Addiction: Some digital technologies like social media, online games, etc are very addictive. This results in wastage of time.
Less Social Interaction: Today everyone is using digital means to communicate with each other. The physical interaction is decreasing day by day. Due to which humans can feel isolation and are easily prone to depression.

Impact of Digitalization in Indian Economy

The impact of digitalization has proved fruitful for the economy of India. The government of India is taking various steps to digitalize the country, so that people enjoy its various services.

Digitalization is also responsible for the development of the country. Digitalization also affects the growth of the economy in various ways. Setting up new job opportunities for youths successfully helped in flourishing the economic growth.

The government of India has taken many steps to digitalize India. The Indian government came up with the concept of e-Governance, in order to digitalize and improve the government services. In 2006, the government proposed the National e-Governance Plan (NeGP). But the results were not very significant.

In 2015, the government of India proposed “Digital India”. The concept of “Cashless India” was pushed forward and is working very well. According to the government it could be helpful in reducing the case of terrorism and money laundering in the country.

Digitalization during Covid Pandemic

During the outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic, there has been a massive shift toward digitalization. It protected the safety and well-being of humans to a great extent. More human gathering is responsible for more spread of the virus. Therefore, in order to save oneself from the pandemic, everyone needs a contactless medium to lead a peaceful life. This was greatly fulfilled by digital technologies.

Huge transformation is seen in the field of education. Students can carry out their studies without going to schools. Online schooling helped children to continue their class from home.

The new technologies helped researchers to “track and trace” the outbreak of pandemic. In order to fight this pandemic, it was very important to have complete knowledge of the outgoing in the country. People were well aware of the rising cases and dangers of this pandemic.

New devices helped doctors in understanding the effects of Covid-19. They were working hard with the help of various digital technologies to stop the spread of the pandemic. However, the process of vaccination was held easily due to digitalization.

Contactless banking and payments methods helped people to carry out their tasks. Online grocery, online pharmacies, online recharge and bill payments would help to control the wide spread of Corona virus in the country.

Future of Digitalization

After noticing the importance of digital technologies in our daily life, we can say that digitalization has become the need of the hour. The live example is the Corona pandemic. The battle with this virus was possible only because of digitalization.

The modern public requires modern techniques. Humans are addicted to the taste of technologies; therefore, they are expecting more new technologies to simplify their job. New technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Internet of Things (IoT) are considered as the future of the nation.

However, the era of digitalization is bringing a promising future for the world.

Digitalization is all about the internet. Therefore, it is considered as the backbone of digitalization. In order to shift India from developing country to developed country the adoption of Digitalization is important. However, it does involve some risks, challenges and disadvantages but we cannot neglect its importance in our day-to-day life.

I hope the above given essay on digitalization would be helpful for you. I have tried to keep the language easy for your better understanding.

FAQs: Frequently Asked Questions on Digitalization

Ans. Belgium, Canada, Norway, etc are considered as the most cashless countries in the world.

Ans. Prime Minister of India Mr. Narendra Modi proposed the Digital India campaign.

Ans. The United States is considered as the most digitalized country in the world according to the 2021 report.

Ans. Data security, insufficient skills and knowledge, lack of capital, etc. can act as barriers in the process of digitalization.

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400 Word Essay Examples

You might think that writing a 400-word essay is a piece of cake because it is short; however, it does not always work this way! The most challenging aspect of writing a short essay is its length since you need to choose only the most critical information to cover. Also, it is pretty tricky to fit arguments, your thoughts, a compelling introduction, and a solid conclusion into 400 words.

But why, then, write such a short essay?

Such a volume is suitable for personal statements that usually take 400 to 800 words. In fact, a 400-word essay can be a good chance for a teacher to assess the student’s understanding of the topic as well as their ability to express thoughts concisely.

Below, we will analyze each component of a 400-word essay, and you will see how everything works in practice! For more free essay examples , check out our website!

💡 400 Word Essay Examples – Highlights

📝 400-words essay topics.

🤳 Technology Essay Examples
✒️ Personal Statement Examples

✍️ How to Write a 400 Word Essay

🌞 Global Warming Essay Examples
⚠️ Responsibility Essay Topics
💀 Examples on Hamlet, Othello, & Macbeth
👨‍🎓 Topic for College Student
📌 400 Words Essay FAQ
Traditional Medicine vs. Modern Medicine In the modern society, traditional medicine is considered the most appropriate way to treat sick people. This would let the doctors to dispense medicine in the best possible way to satisfy each cultural group.
Mockingbirds: The Similarities and Differences Between Tom Robinson and Boo Radley First of all, it is the race of the two men. Secondly, the lives Tom and Boo lead have a different level of openness.
Concentrate and Bottling Business: The Difference in Profitability For instance, Coca-Cola and Pepsi rivalry on the market places an additional burden on the companies, who are sometimes forced to lower the price of a final product on the shelves to stay competitive.
“The Homeric Hymn to Demeter” by Homer Review Although her daughter is returned to her, a part of her is lost because she has to spend part of her life in the underground as the mistress of the underground ruler.
Hellenization and Its Affects on the Birth and Spread of Christianity Hellenization is a term that is commonly used in describing the spread of the culture of the ancient Greeks as well as, to a smaller degree, the Greek language in particular.
Art Styles: Naturalism, Idealization, Stylization This style does not require the artist to recreate reality as a work of art, but to construct a perfect representation of an object or a person.
“The Contrast” by Royall Tyler The play shows the contrast between the representatives of American folk and Yankee on the basis of Jonathan’s behavior and manners.
Leadership and Organizational Psychology of Vince Lombardi The Meyers-Briggs Type Indicator is one of the most renowned personality tests an individual can use to assess one’s leadership journey.
History of Mexican Festival The experience of attending the Mexican festival stretched my cultural perception as I discovered that Mexicans have a rich culture in terms of food, art, and music.
Tricompartmental Osteoarthritis in the Left Knee: Case Study Osteoarthritis is a common form of arthritis that may affect many people from different parts of the work. This type of inflammation damages joints.
Spanish vs. English Colonization In their efforts to colonize the Americas, the Spanish and the British opted for polarly different approaches, with the methods of the latter showing to be more effective and prosperous in the long-run.
Humanities as Academic Disciplines On the other hand, the study of classical and modern languages acts as the cornerstone for the study of modern-day humanities.
The Smart Balance Wheel, Its Pros and Cons An important advantage of the smart balance wheel is that it has a smart feature, which means that a person automatically maintains balance while on it.
Sexuality According to Playboy Sexuality is defined as the way of how people are able to experience themselves as sexual beings and show the others the things that can prove that the chosen experience is deserved to be called […]
The Utilitarianism Theory in Society Therefore, utilitarianism should lead to an increase in happiness of the society. In utilitarianism, rules are necessary in the governing of the actions.
The ethical side of banning abortion.
The impact of social media on teenager self-esteem.
Discipline as a key to academic success.
Why are family traditions crucial?
Drug addiction: methods to overcome the issue.
How to stop global warming?
Discrimination and inequality at the workplace.
Language as a cultural identity marker.
The issue of bullying and cyberbullying in high school.
The role of hope in religious beliefs.
Triggers: the value of finding causes of anxiety.
The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the economy.
What is the role of women in the development of science?
Remote education in the 21st century: pros and cons.
The influence of music on our emotional well-being.
Marine pollution and its consequences for the environment.
How can AI replace humans in many jobs?
The impact of deforestation on food security.
The role of the family in the formation of moral values.
How to deal with stress in everyday life?

🤳 Human Dependence on Technology Essay 400 Words

Check out these excellent examples of human dependence on technology essays of 400 or more words.

Smartphones Make Dull Minds Essay 400 Words Nowadays, people depend on smartphones greatly. How does constant digital connectivity affect cognitive abilities? You can assess whether the prevalence of smartphones contributes to intellectual stimulation or, as some argue, leads to diminished mental engagement, potentially making minds dull.
Are We Too Dependent on Computers Essay 400 Words Explore the intricate relationship between humans and computers in contemporary society. To what extent have we become dependent on these technological marvels? Both in our personal lives and professional endeavors. Analyze the potential consequences, benefits, and drawbacks of this dependence, considering factors like convenience, productivity, and privacy.
Digitalization in Daily Life Essay 400 Words Digitalization has transformed nearly every facet of modern life. Investigate how digital technologies have seamlessly integrated into our daily routines. Assess the impact of this digital revolution on society, including changes in communication, commerce, and culture. What are the implications for the future?

Find more 400-word essay topics below.

Waymo vs Uber: The Theft of Intellectual Property As part of the settlement, both companies agreed to employ an independent technical expert to ensure no Waymo technology is incorporated in Uber’s hardware and software.
The Mobile Phone in the Education System The first issue is that not all pupils own a mobile phone and this brings in the challenge of uniformity in use of this technology.
Streaming Entertainment: Netflix and Amazon Prime Video To conclude, Netflix and Amazon Prime have a similar price for the basic subscription, with the latter offering additional discount for students, but each platform has different advantages.
The Use of Technology in the Human Services Field The sphere of human services is one of the essential components of any community since people working in this area set themselves the task of making the life of other people easier.
Psychological Considerations and Sociological Effects of Drones Drones improve the psychological wellbeing of soldiers because they eliminate the trauma and stress of engaging in war.
Information Technologies and Disaster Management In this article, Sakurai and Murayama present examples of the application of information technology in various stages of disaster management, including preparedness, recovery, response, and risk reduction.
The Affect of the New Technologies on the Tourism and Hospitality Industries Hence, it might be relevant to design a novel application of VR within the mentioned industry, utilizing the theory of telepresence, as well as to compare it to the related currently available opportunities.
Wireless Networks Integration in Business This paper will discuss the main categories of wireless networks that have the potential to be used in business, as well as the pros and cons of such a solution.
Internet Use and Well-Being Among College Students Finally, Gordon et al.analyze the role of Internet use in students’ escapism and psychological adjustment. The article by Gordon et al.offers valuable insights into the relationship between students’ use of the Internet and their well-being.
Cell Phone Use While Driving: Policy Analysis Therefore, in a public policy debate, proponents of regulation would argue that per capita healthcare savings and resulting QALY measures are significant enough to justify a ban on the use of private cellphones in driving […]
Technology in Social Interaction Within Ten Years Technology will ease the ability for people to interact because they will be able to access information and content in real-time.
YouTube as a Product Promotion Platform The rapid development of Internet technologies and the emergence of social media structures affect the marketing methods and strategies greatly. The posts and customer reviews create the risk factors for the marketing strategies efficiency, and […]
Mobile Technology Impact on Romantic Relationships For young men it is better to send a message with a poor mimicry of invitation than to follow all the steps of the traditional courtship.
The Importance of Media in the Classroom The theory is developed from the perspective of a teacher and aims at the analysis of the classroom media employment as well as the accommodation of the reviewed sources to the school conditions.
Technologies and Instructions in the Learning Process To students, instruction is the way of life. It is true that the current technology being used to deliver instruction may change in future.

✒️ 400 Word Personal Statement Examples – 2024

A personal statement (or admissions/application essay) is a short essay where you should present the qualities and skills you’ve gained over your life. Such a piece is required to apply for college and is evaluated by the admission committee. Here are some topics for a personal statement of 300-400 words.

How do you choose a job of your dreams?
The influence of a teacher on my professional growth.
The obstacles I have overcome to achieve my goals.
Career ambitions and their importance.
Why do you want to attend this school?
The facet of my personality and experience.
How to learn from obstacles?
My journey of self-discovery.
Effective methods of becoming a leader .
Why have I chosen this college?
My experience of teamwork: benefits and challenges.
The impact of personal values on the choice of profession.
Effective strategies for achieving career goals.
The person who inspires me the most.
What does your favorite book reveal about you?

A 400-word essay includes an introduction, main body, and conclusion. It is vital to mention a thesis statement in the introduction since it is a significant element of your essay. Estimate 75-100 words per paragraph, where only one point is discussed and supported with facts and examples. A literature review is not always necessary for such short essays, but if your assignment requires it, you may include a list of sources at the end of your work.

The picture describes a 400-word essay structure.

400 Word Essay Length

How many pages is a 400-word essay? If you use Times New Roman font and 12 pt size, your essay will take 0.8 (single-spaced) or 1.6 (double-spaced) pages. In case you are writing your paper by hand, it will take 1.6 pages, depending on your handwriting.

Here is how each section of a 400-word piece can look:

The introduction – 75-100 words (one paragraph, 2-3 sentences).
The main body – 200-250 words in total. Each paragraph might have 70-120 words depending on the number of body paragraphs, which can range from 3 to 4.
The conclusion – the remaining 75-100 words (2-3 sentences).

With our professional Research Paper Outline Generator , you can create an efficient plan for your 400 word paper and save lots of time.

400-Word Essay Introduction

The introduction of a 400-word essay should be concise and focused. It can take 3-4 sentences or 75-100 words. The introduction should catch the reader’s attention and provide enough information about the topic covered. There are two key components a good intro for an essay of 400 words should include:

A hook that expresses your essay’s meta-theme . You can think of it as a punch line encouraging readers to continue reading.
A thesis statement that articulates your argument . Try to make it as clear as possible to convey your core idea in just a few words.

Use our research introduction maker to ease your work and get a concise introduction suitable for a 400-word essay.

400-Word Essay Conclusion

A conclusion is an essential part of the essay since it gives the reader a sense of closure while reminding them of the paper’s contents. In an essay of 400 words, the conclusion section requires you to give a factual summary of your essay in about 75-100 words or 3-4 sentences. The first sentence should repeat the thesis, while the remaining two should summarize the rest of the essay. Then, you may indicate that you have finished your text using a final statement. With the help of this closing sentence generator , you can make a perfect final sentence.

So, the structure of the conclusion for your 400-word essay will look the following way:

Restated thesis.
Summary of the essay.
Ending statement.

How Many References Should I Use in a 400 Word Paper?

Depending on the task, complexity of the topic, and requirements, the number of references can be different. For a 400-word essay, 1 or 2 sources may be quite enough. If you are writing a personal statement or an autobiographical essay, then references are unnecessary (unless stated otherwise in the requirements).

You can rely on a citation generator to make a bibliography list of the appropriate style.

🌞 Essay on Global Warming 400 Words

Social Work Practice From an Ecological Perspective The social worker implemented the life model approach in four stages: first, in the preparatory stage, the social worker attempted to get to know the client and his environment.
Global Warming: Speculation and Biased Information For example, people or organizations that deny the extent or existence of global warming may finance the creation and dissemination of incorrect information.
The Paris Climate Agreement: The UAE’s Engagement The UAE also recognizes the significance of the climate change problem and the necessity to address it. The UAE’s engagement in the Paris Climate Agreement and its contribution to addressing climate change is significant.
How Climate Change Could Impact the Global Economy In “This is How Climate Change Could Affect the World Economy,” Natalie Marchand draws attention to the fact that over the next 30 years, global GDP will shrink by up to 18% if global temperatures […]
Environmental Injustice Impeding Health and Happiness The authors note that there is a constant flow of the white population to the areas most protected from flooding and the displacement of the black population from there.
The Dangers of Global Warming: Environmental and Economic Collapse Global warming is caused by the so-called ‘Greenhouse effect’, when gases in Earth’s atmosphere, such as water vapor or methane, let the Sun’s light enter the planet but keep some of its heat in.
Aspects of Global Warming Global warming refers to the steadily increasing temperature of the Earth, while climate change is how global warming changes the weather and climate of the planet.
Article Review on Carbon Tax Policy Whereas the article points out the financial implication of the Canadian government policy on climate change, it failed to appreciate the general ethical benefits that the world will gain if Canada commits to climate change […]
Recycled Water – Is It Safe for Drinking? There are a number of barriers that always work against the desire to obtain safe drinking water from recycling plants.
Climate Change: Who Is at Fault? The rationale for the author’s argument is centered around the premise that it is wrong to praise the political and economic system of the 1980s while blaming people for the inability to make changes in […]

⚠️ 400 Word Essay on Responsibility

The importance of corporate social responsibility.
Personal responsibility for fighting against stereotypes.
Why should people be responsible for their own decisions and actions?
Diplomacy: responsibility for peace and conflict resolution.
Ethical responsibilities in the business industry.
How to combine personal and professional responsibilities?
Responsibility in disaster preparedness and response.
Internet etiquette and responsibility for online behavior.
The ethical responsibility in the healthcare industry.
Environmental responsibility and its value.
The role of parents in students’ academic responsibility .
Why people should be responsible for their mental health?
Responsibility in journalism and its importance.
The peculiarities of religious responsibility.
The importance of responsibility for aging populations.
Why are we responsible for our future generation?
Students’ responsibilities and their values.
Why should people be responsible with modern technology?
The role of parental responsibility in child development.
Ethical responsibility in end-of-life care.

💀300-400 Words Essay – Hamlet, Othello, & Macbeth

Othello essay 400 words.

Social Issues in Shakespeare’s “The Tragedy of Othello” The social environment of England at the end of the sixteenth and the beginning of the seventeenth century was characterized by great attention to social class, citizens’ jobs, and their reputation.
Shakespeare’s Tragedy “Othello” Speaking of racism as a possible motivation for Iago’s behavior, it is worth noting that it is not the primary and only source of its manifestation.
Mind vs. Heart in “Othello” by William Shakespeare The main idea of the William Shakespeare’s tragedy Othello, written in 1604, is the confrontation of the mind and the heart.
The Significance of the Handkerchief to Othello The main reason for the discord is that Othello slept with his wife and justifies all the negativity toward Iago. The handkerchief is the best proof that Desdemona has entered into an intimate relationship with […]
Exploring Diverse Perspectives on Shakespeare’s Othello: A Comprehensive Analysis He starts by briefly retelling the main events of Othello and proceeds to state that modern critics’ main concern is about the subjects of race and gender in their analyses of the play.

Hamlet Essay 400 Words

Deceiving Appearances in “Hamlet” and “The Lion King” In particular, Claudius and Scar represent villains under the guise of well-wishers, while Rosencrantz and Guildenstern from Hamlet and hyenas from The Lion King appear worse than they seem.
“Hamlet” and “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead” The link of “Hamlet” and “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead” to the present days can be seen in the lost characters.
Hamlet vs. Oedipus Rex: Who Is More Resilient? In Sophocles’ Oedipus the King, Oedipus is a protagonist; he is seeking the truth and is unconcerned about the harm it may pose.
Hamlet and Gertrude Relationships in Shakespeare’s Play However, even though Hamlet threatens to murder Gertrude to “wring” her heart, the audience can understand that he loves his mother and wants her to repent of her sins and end the relationship with Hamlet’s […]
Hamlet’s Relationship With His Mother and Uncle Hamlet’s assessment of his issues is accurate in the sense that he already associates Claudius with problems, but the prince is too quick to judge his mother.

Macbeth Essay 400 Words

William Shakespeare: Hamlet and Macbeth It is important to examine the role that the setting plays in Hamlet and Macbeth in relation to the tragic flaw and developments of the plot.
Omens in The “Macbeth” Play by William Shakespeare The supernatural was an aspect of the plot structure used to add tension and drama to the occurrences and situations and manifested in various ways. To conclude, the owl and raven were utilized as omens […]
Analyzing the Adaptation of the Shakespeare’s “Macbeth” Furthermore, the names of all the characters in both films are the same except for a little twist in the spelling of names like Mcbeth and Mcduff.
Shakespear’s “Macbeth”: Main Character Change Analysis Macbeth is essentially the story of a character who lives his life in a state of confusion to the degree that the only constant in his life changes.
Macbeth: An Analysis of the Play by Shakespeare Macbeth’s treachery springs from his reliance to the witches who gave him prophecy that results in his endless creation of enemies.

👨‍🎓 400 Word Examples for College

What is the meaning of our life?
Music as a universal language.
The philosophy of mindfulness.
What is happiness, and why is it crucial?
The challenge of having freedom.
Is there hope for our future and life after death?
The difference between mathematics and logic.
How can one person change the world?
The opportunity to live forever: pros and cons.
What makes human life so valuable?
The goal of humanity in the 21st century.
How does Art affect our perception of the world?
The concept of peace and its importance.
Do all people deserve respect?
The problem of knowledge skepticism.
Can we choose our emotions, or do they just happen?
The origin of evil and good.
What is the purpose of education?
The stand for truth and its influence on society.
How do you determine one’s self-worth?

📌 400 Word Essay: Answers to the Most Pressing Questions

📌 how many pages is 400 words double spaced.

How long is a 400-word essay? It will typically be 2 pages double-spaced or one page single-spaced. The exact number of pages a 400 words essay takes will depend on the citation style you use, the number of your footnotes (if you have any), and the length of your bibliography section.

📌 How Many Paragraphs Are in a 400 Word Essay?

How many paragraphs is a 400-word essay? Since a typical paragraph in academic writing contains 50-100 words, an essay of 400 words will consist of 4 to 6 paragraphs.

📌 How Many Sentences Is 400 Words?

How many sentences is a 400-word essay? A typical sentence in academic writing consists of 15-20 words. So, 400 words are not less than 20-23 sentences.

📌 How to Outline a 400-Word Essay?

A 400-word essay outline usually follows a standard five-paragraph structure. Start your paper with a short introduction that includes an attention-grabber, some background information, and a thesis. Then add three body paragraphs that focus on your arguments. Finish your 400-word paper with a conclusion that contains a restated thesis and a summary of your ideas.

📌 How Long Does It Take to Write 400 Words?

How long does it take to write a 400-word essay? It will take you 8-16 minutes to type 400 words on your keyboard (the total time will depend on your typing speed). Writing an academic paper will take more time because you’ll have to research, make an outline, write, format, and edit your text. It would be best if you planned to spend not less than hour and a half for a 400-word paper.

📌 How to Extend an Essay Word Count?

To extend the word count in a 400-word essay, you can clarify your position, add more examples, and use direct quotations. It is also worth checking if your introduction and conclusion are extensive, cohesive, and clear enough. It might be better to add some information to these two sections than to rework your body paragraphs.

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Digitalization and Its Impact on Life in Rural Areas: Exploring the Two Sides of the Atlantic: USA and Germany

First Online: 08 February 2020

Cite this chapter

Mareike Meyn 19

Part of the book series: Modeling and Optimization in Science and Technologies ((MOST,volume 17))

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On both sides of the Atlantic, rural areas struggle to maintain social services, access to education, possibilities of employment etc., under the pressure of demographic developments such as aging and an exodus of young, qualified citizens. Therefore, it is crucial to take a closer look on possible solutions, using digitalization as a means to empower people in rural areas. Digitalization implies more than technology—it also includes the skillset and the mindset involved in using digital technologies. Digitalization needs a strategy: Applied in a holistic way, digitalization creates change and can be used as a catalyst for community empowerment. This chapter presents insights on how today’s digital possibilities are employed in rural areas within the U.S. and Germany. It draws from the essay “Digitalization: Status Quo and future trends—a new impact on life in rural areas” by Mareike Meyn. Findings are that digitalization offers tremendous potential for rural communities: Applied in a well thought-out way, digital possibilities can not only create change, but may also create a future leapfrog effect for rural communities.

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This chapter draws from the essay “Digitalization: Status Quo and future trends—a new impact on life in rural areas” by Meyn [ 32 ].

Interview Partners for the research in 2017 are listed here: [ 32 , 14].

The digital divide can also be observed by comparing States within the U.S.—there is a correlation between low income States with low population density and their low rate of internet connectivity [ 49 ]. Access to ICTs varies, depending on income, age, race and education (ibid.).

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) defines broadband access as speeds of at least 25 Mbps down and 3 Mbps up. [ 56 ].

" The typical Mississippi household earned $40,593 last year, well below the national median income of $55,775. Mississippi also has the highest poverty rate in the country, with 22.0% of residents living below the poverty line. " [ 22 ].

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Meyn, M. (2020). Digitalization and Its Impact on Life in Rural Areas: Exploring the Two Sides of the Atlantic: USA and Germany. In: Patnaik, S., Sen, S., Mahmoud, M. (eds) Smart Village Technology. Modeling and Optimization in Science and Technologies, vol 17. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-37794-6_5

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Digitalization in daily life

Admittedly, “digitalization” is a term that describes a vast field. It starts with reading newspapers on the Internet and does not end with electronic injection in the car engine. Digitalization can allow, facilitate, and enable many things, but it can also complicate, make complicated, and many unrealizable things. The fact is that digitalization is an integral part of our daily lives. The only question is how much digitalization we as humans can endure, or how and where we can benefit from it in practice.

As a digital agency, DeSight Studio® naturally thinks again and again about where the digital business field is developing. Trends become recognizable, and adaptations of existing web presences become necessary. At the same time, the human element must never be disregarded in this equation. After all, it is people (users) who have to work and deal with technical developments and innovations. Here the limits of acceptance are reached very quickly – or in other words: to be accepted, digitalization must be used intelligently.

What does ” digitization ” actually mean? It starts with networked end devices such as the refrigerator and ends again with air taxis. DeSight Studio – to make the path to digitization a little easier!

In general, digitization is expected to bring monetary added value: lower costs, higher output, business intelligence, artificial intelligence, predictive analytics, robot banking, and, of course, the much-quoted automation. However, in daily life, both customers and employees (still) appreciate classic human-to-human communication, which differs in many ways from human-to-machine communication and interaction. Although technology is making enormous progress, empathy, emotion, and intuition can hardly be substituted by digital algorithms. Gestures, language, and intuition create trust, which forms the basis for business transactions. In the coming years, digitization will still be used as supportive assistance – but the next development step is imminent.

From this point of view, the question is not whether digitization should be used, but how much scanning can be used – this threshold value will shift more and more towards automation. As always, this stocktaking begins with an analysis of the company’s services and products. The question is in which market environment one moves, how much consultation is necessary, and what value customers place on human interaction. In the course of an application for real estate financing and the reallocation of earlier loans around the establishment of a company, we will attach great importance to the personal contact with the bank consultant. With the average Amazon order, on the other hand, we are even happy not to have any contact with the seller at all.

As is so often the case, the networking of man and machine – and digitization is nothing else – must take the middle course. Digitization must bring benefits, e.g., through:

Customer information can be found more easily and used by salespeople.

Acceleration of processes in companies, if all participants profit from it.

More intuitive and more comfortable use of new IT solutions.

Deep linking of electronic and individualized contacts to prospects and customers.

Digitalization is not an end in itself, but a means to an end. It is people who work with it and whose needs, wishes, and objectives must always be the focus of attention. This simple basic idea is, at the same time, a springboard for exciting further developments in the company’s sphere of activity.

DeSight Studio GmbH | Wolfgang Zdimal

Journalist and professional copywriter Wolfgang Zdimal wrote this article on behalf of DeSight Studio GmbH and published by DeSight Studio GmbH. Wolfgang Zdimal, who manages his business from Vienna, Austria, has more than 20 years of professional experience and writes for the Austrian Federal Economic Chamber, BAWAG P.S.K. Bank or just for DeSight Studio GmbH.

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Digitalisation in Daily Life Essay

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Digitalization in daily Life Essay [Multiple Essays]

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Regions & Countries

Table of Contents

Family enrichment and enhancement

Work creator, enabler and enhancer

Health and wellness aid

Community lifeline

Social media: The horizon expander

Knowledge storehouse

Problem solver and wonder creator

Education tool

Travel companion and enhancer

Safety enabler

Multipurpose and memory aid

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Anonymous commenters who cited ways the internet helps them and others

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Life after corona and the rapid digitisation of human experiences

From offline to digital realities

Changing the balance from real to mixed reality

What’s next?

The danger of ‘programmable’ human experiences

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Carlos Velasco

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Facets of Digitalization

Impact on Economy

Effect on Society

Role in Education

Implications for Healthcare

The Future of Digitalization

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