Modern people can hardly imagine their lives without contemporary electronic devices. New devices appear almost on a daily basis whereas the existing ones are being updated. People have different attitudes towards new inventions. Some believe that sophisticated gadgets are useful and necessary, while others find them terrible because of their negative impact on people. However, gadgets are changing our day-to-day life on a regular basis. The life we have now is hardly comparable with life even some 15 years ago since then nobody could have ever imagined that such electronic devices as cell phones, laptops, Internet, digital cameras, mp3 players, GPS would become a commonplace as it is today. In the broad sense, technology is the amount of knowledge that can be used to produce goods and services from economic resources. Technologies are being developed every day, and their evolution is impetuous. Progress does not stand still, and new devices and technologies emerge faster than previous ones become obsolete. During last decades, a vast variety of new things had appeared to the point that generations of our parents and grandparents do not know how to cope with and handle the innovative products.
Today most people cannot live without a mobile phone and a computer, or without an Internet, indeed. The World Wide Web gives people a lot of unprecedented possibilities: the Internet just about any information one may wish to explore. Internet provides an opportunity to earn money, because it is a huge advertising space. One can also download videos, music, movies or, ultimately, find the necessary information about the cars, actors, plants, diseases, and literally everything. Moreover, one can chat and use certain programs for video conferencing. Online technologies had emerged to change everything: they broke barriers between people and allowed us to travel around the world sitting in front of our computers; they gave us knowledge and information, which we would otherwise find if we had stayed in the library for several hours or even days, in the past. They provided us with an opportunity to learn everything that we are interested to know; they made our shopping easier: anyone can buy just about anything while he or she sits on the couch in the living room. Finally, online computing changed our attitude to business. There are lots of views about the effect of online technologies on our lives: some of them are positive and others are negative. However, no one would argue that they changed our lives drastically.
Online technologies have made shopping easier. If you wanted to buy some furniture, a TV-set, a car 20 years ago, you had to pay a visit the shopping mall, find a consultant and ask lots of questions to find out what shape, model, color the product might have. The process would even be longer, should it considered buying a car. Online technologies changed the purchasing process, since they simplified this process and made it enjoyable and entertaining. Now everyone might do shopping while sitting on the couch and watching one’s favorite TV programs. Online shopping gives an opportunity to offer all necessary products and wait until they would be delivered. Online shopping has also a negative side: people move less and go outdoors more rarely, therefore, increasing the chances to worsen their health conditions.
Online technologies foster the communication process. It was a dream to communicate with friends, family, or business partners over distance in real time. Now that it has become a reality, and one can even see the fellows using the video conference tools. This technology overturned people’s conscious and gave them opportunity to develop new services, thanks to eased communication. Social organisations can provide their help as quickly as possible. Everyone can call the consulting bureau and receive all the information needed. If you have any psychological or health problems, you can contact the hot line on the hospitals’ or social organization’s websites. Online communication is more entertaining and useful with the social network sites. Social network websites give an opportunity to be always connected to friends, colleagues, and family. You can see news about them, new photos, discuss interesting occasions and post personal thoughts about yourself or other people or things. However, social network websites have their negative side. According to researches and surveys of American sociologists, majority of their compatriots spend more time online than in the real world. In addition, approximately one third of respondents them said that they would prefer to exchange text messages, rather than communicate with people face to face. About 20% of compatriots said that social media does not allow them to make important things since they are depended on it, as they were afraid of public condemnation. Therefore, social networks can be understood as a tool for replacing real life. Moreover, if someone does not want to be dependent on social networking, he or she has to spend time in live communication, which, however, has its undeniable advantages.
Online technologies have influenced business performance immensely. The Internet created new, unique business opportunities. In early times, the highly profitable business was determined as something that was connected with the production sphere. Manufactures are still highly profitable; however, in order to open such business one needs have to have a lot of money and work hard to earn profits. Owning the Internet everything has changed. The little company with 20 persons in personnel can be much more profitable than the manufacturing company. For instance, it is well known that the owner of the social network website Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, became the billionaire in several years, and his business is still growing. Moreover, the online shopping sites are also extremely profitable, because they do not need the physical space to sell their products. For example, the emergence of e-commerce and online technologies offer an opportunity for tourism sphere to expend markets and improve efficiency in product delivery and communications management. As technologies and communications are continually changing the way we live, lifelong learning became essential.
Online technologies have vigorously influenced the studying process. Parents can control their children learning process and results in elementary school. Children who are ill and cannot attend the normal classes can study with the help of online technologies. Online education has positive and negative aspects. Distance learning allows teachers and students to work with each other online while they are sitting in the different places. In addition, online education enables the learning process to be increasingly affordable (in time and finance terms). It is also adapted to the customer needs. Finally, the distance education is cheaper if compared with similar programs for full-time education. However, lots of employers do not want to hire people who are educated through distance learning courses only. Moreover, the most important feature of online education is that students can develop essential skills of team work, especially if classes provide training in the international teams, which brings together people of different mentalities and life experiences. Negotiations skills are currently in high demand, in the business community, because of globalization processes.
Finally, the Internet has changed everything that is relevant to planning, information and communication. All day-to-day life activities of modern people are concerned with the Internet and the abilities it provides. Nowadays, no one can imagine his or her life without e-mails. Work, studying, as well as communication are all associated with information exchange. This innovation has simplified people’s life; however, it also influences the impact of people’s activities on the nature. Emails have substituted the paper letters. Tons of paper were wasted for correspondence, reports etc; however, the new technology helps save forests. The internet contains major clusters of information that exist today. If one needs to find any information or make research, everything needed might be searched in the internet. If such technologies have not appeared, all the new information needed to be printed on paper. A map is always needed when one is going to an unknown place. It is hard to imagine how people would draw maps of the whole world. However, now we have the GPS system, it can show your location on the map no matter where you are.
There are lots of information resources analyzed; however, there is no exact point of view about online technologies. The impact of online technology is a widely discussed topic: some scientists argue that they have positive effects, whereas others claim, the effects are negative. However, one is using online technologies facilities every day. Of course, some online technologies cause negative tendencies throughout the whole world, whereas, in general terms, they simplify our lives and make our lives safer and increasingly convenient. Online technologies give everyone so many possibilities that their negative sides are minimized.