My iLife (Digital Essay 1)

Technology has revolutionized the world, and for the baby boomers, the change has been so dramatic that they cannot comprehend how they used to live in the 90s without the efficiency of today’s systems. Being a Millennial for me is the best thing that has happened to my life. You are born in an age where you dawn to digital inventions every day. The world is technically moving to a ‘smart’ way where everything is emplaced in the cloud and controlled wirelessly. I guess that in the near future people would hardly need to go for shopping in malls or call a technician to fix their broken home appliances. Drones would deliver goods ordered on e-commerce sites, and broken appliances could automatically send log reports to their manufacturers, and by the moment one identifies that one’s refrigerator needs to be repaired, a technician would have come to do the necessary repairs.

In my case, the digital age has been and is still an amazement. One aspect that I have seen burgeon with at a rate of knots is mobile phone technology. I remember in the early 2000s mobile phones were huge, cumbersome gadgets that were popular with the posh neighbors at the neighborhood. I have watched them develop rapidly into small, sleek devices that can be literally anything from a camera to a mini-computer. I am intrigued the way mobile phones can seamlessly take pictures and record videos that you can send them to the rest of the world with a click.

When mobile phones first entered the market, they were used mainly for texts and calls. Internet-enabled phones were nowhere to be seen. Furthermore, phones were solid and heavy gadgets with numerous buttons used to navigate the screen. It is just magnificent how today’s mobile phones exhibit an intuitive touch-screen interface.

One aspect of mobile phones that has changed my life is their ability to simplify operations with numerous apps. With a banking app, I do not have to visit the bank to recharge my credit card or pay off some bills. Other exclusive apps are the social ones including Facebook, Google +, Twitter, and Instagram not to mention Whatsapp and Wechat. With such social apps, I can connect in a whim with friends in every corner of the earth. We can share videos, pictures, and other information through these apps. In fact, whenever I want to shed off a few bucks for a product I am not familiar with, my social media followers would be glad to assist me. The first time I held my first mobile phone, it was an amazing experience- I could barely stop playing the preinstalled games while mesmerizing at the power of technology.

My social media handles are instant news sources for me. I do not have to stick to my OLED TV waiting for news as the social media is faster in disseminating news. As I love ABC news so much, I have installed their app on my phone so that I can get everything from “breaking news” to “tech-based news” anytime anywhere.

My IPhone has been part of my life – it has been an attention-grabbing cloak that I cannot shrug off any soon. I have installed apps where I have signed up for premium packages. For example, I have an app that helps me in my workouts and monitors my progress. Also, I have an interest in 3D Printing, and I have subscribed to a YouTube channel that offers free training on the same every day for 30 minutes. I have a finance app where I record all my daily transactions and a scheduling app that ensures I do not miss any of my daily schedules. Today, mobile phones are not the mere communication devices that we were used to – they are central in our lives.