With the rapid development of eCommerce in recent years, a
great many changes can be seen in everyone’s daily lives. Not just young people
but people of all ages! I first realized this about 2 years ago when I went to
visit my Grandfather and he was sitting in the sitting room on his brand new
“machine” ( also known as a laptop). When I asked what he was doing he simply
said “I’m playing scrabble with a man in Canada!”
It is incredible how interconnected everybody can be these
days. Of course this is due to the massive and rapid development of new
technology. I see this in my own daily life.
Currently, I have friends and connections in America, Hong Kong and
Portugal that I like to keep in contact with on a daily basis. In previous
years, the most I could do would be to send an email. Now, however, I can talk
to them for free, video call them for free, leave voice messages for free and
send pictures to them for free. Thanks to new-age software and applications
like “Skype”, “Viber” and “Voxer” I can stay in contact with these people as if
they were in the next room at no financial cost. The message is sent and then
delivered instantaneously. We are rapidly approaching the globalisation 3.0 era
that Thomas Friedman said would soon arrive.
While I know that these programmes are “free” I also
recognise that value that the businesses developing these gain from my use of
them. I don’t mean euro’s pounds or
dollars, but data, information and knowledge. All of these combined give these
businesses a great competitive advantage in their playing field against other
businesses. I won’t complain though, I
get to talk to my friends on the other side of the world for free. As they say:
“if you want to win it, you got to be in it!”
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