This article considers the increasing impact of technology on our lives.

• 

  Mindmap

Definition

Facebook, Twitter, smartphones and tablet computers. New technologies are dramatically changing our lives.

peo·ple (ppl) n. pl. people 1. Humans considered as a group or in indefinite numbers: People were dancing in the street. I met all sorts of people. (Extracted from:http://www.thefreedictionary.com/people)

Lifestyle

People's lifestyles are changing dramatically.

The IT industry tends to place a very high value on improving our quality of life. For example, a lot has changed electronically to decrease work and to simplify life as much as possible. Thus much can be done via the Internet which is leading us to live virtual lives.

Recently there is a real smartphone´s war. A smartphone is not just an electronic device anymore. It's an accessory. There are limited editions with diamonds, smartphones with the trend D&G or Gucci and so on. This is a clear sign of how technology has had a tremendous upper hand on the mentality of men. Simple handling systems, powerful and eye-catching design are mixed together to form a first-class accessory.

Lifestyles differ by a vast margin on a person by person basis even on something as simple as food. People can decide wether they want to cook something or just grab a quick snack. The food industry gives enough options for everyone no matter what dietary conditions affect a person. There's Veganism, Vegetatrianism and many more next to the Omnivore way the majority chooses.

Virtual/Real Life

New technologies make it possible to do almost everything online whether it is shopping, reading the news, playing games, or communicate with friends. Even the own house can be controlled by touch of a button.

This all is part of the virtual life. About 10 years ago, the virtual reality was just only in computer games.

A gamer lives in his game in another “virtual” World, where he could do almost everything . Things he couldn’t do in the “real” world.

Today, there are not only the games which creates a virtual world. Almost every technology can be controlled by a remote device.

One danger is when people are lost in their virtual life, and lose the connection in their real Life.

Communication

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia For other uses, see Communication (disambiguation). "Communicate" redirects here. For other uses, see Communicate (disambiguation).

Communication (from Latin commūnicāre, meaning "to share" [1]) is the activity of conveying information through the exchange of ideas, feelings, intentions, attitudes, expectations, perceptions or commands, as by speech, non-verbal gestures, writings, behavior and possibly by other means such as electromagnetic, chemical or physical phenomena and smell. It is the meaningful exchange of information between two or more participants (machines, organisms or their parts).[2][3]

Communication requires a sender, a message, a medium and a recipient, although the receiver does not have to be present or aware of the sender's intent to communicate at the time of communication; thus communication can occur across vast distances in time and space. Communication requires that the communicating parties share an area of communicative commonality. The communication process is complete once the receiver understands the sender's message.[citation needed]

Communicating with others involves three primary steps:[4]

   Thought: First, information exists in the mind of the sender. This can be a concept, idea, information, or feeling.
   Encoding: Next, a message is sent to a receiver in words or other symbols.
   Decoding: Lastly, the receiver translates the words or symbols into a concept or information that a person can understand.

There are a variety of verbal and non-verbal forms of communication. These include body language, eye contact, sign language, haptic communication, and chronemics. Other examples are media content such as pictures, graphics, sound, and writing. The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities also defines the communication to include the display of text, Braille, tactile communication, large print, accessible multimedia, as well as written and plain language, human-reader, augmentative and alternative modes, means and formats of communication, including accessible information and communication technology.[5] Feedback is a critical component of effective communication.

See also: [Communication]

Change of Communication

Communication has been though a lot of changes since the first sounds a human being made.

• Stone Age: sounds (just for important actions e.g. hunting , no real social activities) and cave drawings
• Egyptian: letters, books made out of papyrus
• 15th century: the German printer Johannes Gutenberg develops the first printing press
• 1876: the phone; first patented by Alexander Graham Bell then further developed by many others
• 1980: the Internet

Impact of new Communication

Social Networks

Negative Aspects

Today, social networks like Facebook and Twitter are big parts of the everyday life. Some people say it is necessary to communicate with friends, even if they met this friend a minute ago in the real world. Just because Facebook is providing a nonstop communication, a lot of people are thinking that everyone can, should and has to use it.

Because a lot of people feel the pressure of being noticed and popular, they are in danger of becoming depressed if they do not get attention. Especially Teenager who have the need of being part of a group, because it is part of their natural development. Studies show that even knowing what others have done, what you could not or cannot do, can lead to this depression. Many bullies take advantage of some peoples problems on social media pages. Some of the bullied people (often teenager) suffer from this and can take several psychological damages.

Mobility

Mobiliy doesn´t exist anymore, because many things can do by the internet. Maybe virtual conference through skype or other things make it more easier to communicate. IT is now so advanced that many people work from home on any place. The best example for this is the indian hotline support or remote support. Because of this development Mobility get more in the virtual way.

Over the years, technology has taken over to the daily life of every person . About 20 or 30 years ago people used to use paper maps or to read information in the stations. Today with a simple touch it is possible to access any information : maps , train schedules, distance from one place to another, best route to get in time in a partcular place. The simplicity is key that makes the world of technology so attractive to the human eyes.

Jobs

The digital revolution destroys Jobs faster, than it can creates new one. The worldwide use of computer has become in the last years so much better, cheaper and efficient, that the human has become not just only in individual industries replaced. This development is known for a decade also the fear of the consequences from the technical progress is not new. But in the last years the economics and its labor markets adapt themselves rapidly despite big changes. -More jobs were incur in new industries than old were lost.

In the digital revolution, the IT-progress with global corporations like Google or Apple creates billion of new jobs around the world more than another industry. But the parallel triggered devastation in other industries will be bigger in the end. Different to preceding technical revolution is, that not just mostly poorly trained employee in less demanding jobs are endangered. The broad middle of service and employees are so too. Call center employee be replaced by phone robot Paralegals be replaced by computer programs which can work faster and better with documents tax consultant be replaced by cheap software.

Journalists will be not be spared as well. In the USA exist a computer program which can write and publish short sport news.

E-learning

E-Learning is a new concept of learning through the Internet. It simplifies the learning process thanks to the multimedia material, which are often easy on the ear/eye. It provides videos, audio tracks and photos (which concerns mathematics, languages, physics, literature and so on). The following is a list with the advantages of e-learning:

- It is possible to learn languages for free without living in other countries. - Everyone is able to read/learn more about a subject of their interest. - Everyone has the possibility to get instant access to a broad range of information. - People with special disabilities (the blind, deaf and dumb etc.) are spurred to learn new concepts, which also includes the field (or subjects) of their interest. - Decrease of illiteracy. - More interest in learning. - Sometimes it is free. - Always instant and up to date.

The tendency of using E-learning as a standard information source has increased after the advent of smartphones and tablets, so that from this point of view it is having an increasingly positive impact on how we learn.

Negative influence of technology

Most people who think about the negative impact of technology in the 21th century come up with the lack of communcation and the fact that people are not able to find a street they do not know without using Google-Maps. But is that really a problem that comes with new technology? Of course, some people like checking their phones more than talking to someone face to face.But the question is: Would these people communicate more if they did not own a smartphone? Of course, most people dont know how to find new placed without their smartphones but I am sure that these peole would not have been able to find it without a map back in the days anyways.

Problems:

• Addiction (Internet, Smartphones ...)
• Energy - Who suffers from the higher energy costs?!
• Rare Earth elements - What do we need to procude all the technology?!
• Negative influence of media on people
• Declining writing skills - Autocorrection
• Less physical activities

References

• Mobility & Transport
• Military
• Communications
• Security & Privacy
• Technology
• Open
• Energy
• Resources
• AI
• Robotics