Virtual Life - What’s Next?
Over the past two decades, we’ve all become settlers on the digital frontier. Thanks to the rapid advancement of technology, everyday life is drastically different than it was even 10 years ago, when we bought CDs, DVDs, and hardback books, and even still had some old VHS and cassette tapes lying around the house.
We’re still a culture of collectors, just not in the physical sense. Now, everything from our media libraries to our collections of birthday cards is digitised. In effect, the virtual age allows us to alleviate clutter from our homes while consuming more than we ever did before. Let’s take a closer look at the way the digital age has transformed our daily lives, and get a preview of what’s to come:
Music
Remember when your personal media library used to clutter up several shelves of your home entertainment system? Now, it’s possible to store thousands of your favourite songs on one sleek little digital music device. You can also stream hundreds of tracks onto your personal music player with very few commercial interruptions. Expect the future to bring more digital downloads and live streaming; new apps are also making it possible for fans to download their favourite music directly from a social media storefront.
Movies and Television
While there’s nothing quite like watching an action movie on the home entertainment system with surround sound, the internet has definitely revolutionised the way we watch films and TV shows. Your favourite programmes and movies are now streamed on the internet, and can be downloaded onto your iPad, Kindle Fire, or even your digital music player. These devices have and will continue to improve the viewing experience with faster download times and higher picture resolution.
Books
The modern bookworm doesn’t let his collection sit on a shelf collecting dust. Instead, he downloads his books from the internet and stores them on his slim, portable digital reading device. E-readers have become especially popular with businesspeople, travellers, and parents who are always on the go. The future of the book industry lies not only in digital readers and e-books, but book apps as well. Apps may give future readers an added value for their money by increasing their interaction with the book and allowing them to share their favourite content via social media platforms.
Greeting Cards
Gone are the days where you have stacks of old Christmas cards lying around your house, or keep a selection of greeting cards on file just in case you don’t have time to run to the store. The entire greeting card industry has been transformed by the internet. With a few quick clicks, you can choose and send cards with cool animation on them, or personalise e-cards with photos, music, or video messages. The future of the e-card industry is phone apps that send you birthday reminders, allow you to personalise and finger-sign your cards, and fetch the recipient’s address for you.
Bottom Line: Apps will continue to revolutionise the way we listen to music, read books, watch movies and TV, and even send and receive greeting cards. We can’t wait to see what’s in store.
About the Guest Author:
Rhian Farnworth is a freelance writer based in London, UK. She enjoys exploring and writing about societal issues and current affairs, as well as Digital Media, Tech, travelling and going to gigs. You can follow her on Twitter @Digital1love
