So
continuing with the list, we are here again with some innovations that changed
human lives and the FUTURE. These innovations helped in the evolution of
mankind in this technological world. So as promised earlier we’ll be discussing
about Big Data and some other innovations which changed the way we see this
world –
1) Streaming Media:
The year
2020, Netflix, YouTube and Amazon Prime were the options to decrease everyone’s
boredom who were stuck in their homes due to the lockdown. Although Netflix has
been around since the 1990’s, but back then it was only a rent by mail DVD
service.
Then in
2007, the company launched its online streaming service – people could watch
shows. Netflix was labeled as a major disruptor of the industry by offering
on-demand movies with a monthly subscription.
And in the
2010’s, the growth of the streaming industry has been nothing but phenomenal,
with Amazon launching Prime Video in 2011 and in the last few years, we’ve seen
Hulu (Only for North America), HBO Max, Apple TV, and this growth forced even
the likes of Walt Disney to enter this business, with Walt Disney releasing
Disney+ last year. Disney+ is so popular
that it is currently being watched by over 86.8 Million households, that too in
a little over a year, and as per reports they are eyeing over 260 Million
households in next 4 years. Netflix currently has over 195.15 million paying
households. India too has seen the rise in OTTs, with many people preferring
them over cinemas.
2020’s COVID
situation gave this industry a major boost, and these companies are the one of
the very few that made profits in 2020.This just proves how the Streaming media
has impacted the society.
2) Internet and(or) the Worldwide
Web:
Describe
Internet?
If I were to
give the answer, I would have described it with the help of the two O’s –“OMNIPRESENT” and “OCEAN”. Yes I did call it that and you
know that it is true. Some people think that the World Wide Web and the
Internet are the same but they’re actually not. The internet’s predecessor
ARPAnet was created in the 1960’s and the Internet came into existence in
1971.However, the World Wide Web was created in 1991 by Tim Berners-Lee and in
1992 a browser called “Netscape” was created for browsing. That’s all
it took for it’s popularity to explode.
Today, almost
everything that could be known is on the Internet and more than one-third of
the population of the world uses the Internet. From buying or selling things to
learning anything you might want to know, all of it is available on the
internet.
It’s the
internet that later gave birth to social media, email, shopping sites and the
best things about it is that it’s owned by no one and is accessible to
everyone, it has a very low cost of maintenance, security, and the interaction
with other media.
It can be
rightly said, that the internet is probably one of the most groundbreaking
inventions of all time and it has changed the world.
3) Social Media:
In less than
a generation, social media has evolved from a direct electronic exchange to a
virtual gathering place, for buying/selling and now, a marketing tool. The
earliest social media networks began with the short-lived Six Degrees profile
in 1997.It was followed by Friendster in 2001. Other than that, blogs have
existed since 1999. LinkedIn was founded in 2002 for professional people for
finding jobs and as of 2020, it has over 675 Million users. But, the rise of
Social media popularity is mostly associated with Facebook (the facebook,
originally)and it is rightly said so.
Facebook was
founded by Mark Zuckerberg in 2004 while he was still in Harvard, and by 2008
it had over 200 Million users and reported profit for the first time. And since
then, it only grew further with over 2.6 billion active users in 2020.It
acquired Whatsapp and Instagram, with both currently having over 1 billion
users. Other popular platforms include Snapchat, Reddit, Pinterest, Twitter and
the latest buzz was created by-Tiktok and all of these have seen meteoric rise
in popularity.
According to
reports, more than 72% US adults use Social Media, and this makes them
ideal for marketing purpose, thereby
influencing people. Many companies like Tesla, Kylie Cosmetics just use social
media for their promotion. Most of the celebrities/influencers use these
platforms and earn staggering amounts of money from these platforms alone. Social
media has had a very powerful effect on people and has also said to have even
influenced something as huge and important as Government Elections around the
world and has also been embroiled in many controversies particularly, Facebook.
Despite
these controversies, Social Media definitely continues to dominate and has had
a huge impact on the world.
4) Digital Currency:
Should I
invest in Bitcoin or not? This question must have come across a lot of people
in the recent time when the price Bitcoin shot up to an all time high of $19,783. But what exactly is Bitcoin or
Digital Currency in general? Digital currency is a balance or a record stored
in a distributed database on the Internet, in an electronic computer database,
within digital files or within a stored-value card.
The history
of Digital Currency dates back to 1983, when a research paper by David Chaum
introduced the idea of digital cash. In 1989, he founded DigiCash, an
electronic cash company, in Amsterdam to commercialize the ideas in his
research but it filed for bankruptcy in 1998.
e-gold was
the first widely used Internet money, introduced in 1996, and grew to several
million users before the US Government shut it down in 2008. Origins of most
digital currencies date back to the 1990s Dot-com bubble. Other known digital
currency services were Liberty Reserve, founded in 2006 and Q coins or QQ coins
which emerged in China around 2005. Q coins were so effective in China that
they were said to have had a destabilizing effect on the Chinese Yuan currency
due to speculation.
In 2009,
bitcoin was launched, which marked the start of decentralized blockchain-based
digital currencies with no central server, and no tangible assets held in
reserve. Pi currency is somewhat similar to bitcoin. Also known as
cryptocurrencies, blockchain-based digital currencies proved resistant to
attempt by government to regulate them, because there was no central
organization or person with the power to turn them off.
Recent
interest in cryptocurrencies has prompted renewed interest in digital
currencies, with Bitcoin, introduced in 2008, becoming the most widely used and
accepted digital currency.
5) Big Data:
Big data is still an enigma to many people. It’s a relatively new
term that was only coined during the latter part of the last decade.
The term big data doesn’t just refer to the enormous amount
of data available today, it also refers to the whole process of gathering,
storing and analyzing that data.
In the past, big data was a big business tool but it wasn’t a
small business friend. This is because of the fact that it wasn’t easy and was
quite expensive. Big Data in the cloud changed all of that. It turned out
to be the perfect solution for many companies. It doesn’t require any
on-premise infrastructure, which greatly reduces the startup costs. It also
doesn’t require the same amount of data experts on the team because of
how much can be done by the cloud company itself. Big data in the cloud is also
vital because of the growing amount of information each day.
Big data has also evolved in its use since it’s inception. Today, we
see it being used in the military to reduce injuries, in the NBA to monitor
every movement on the floor during a game, in healthcare to prevent heart
disease and cancer and in music to help artists go big. We’re seeing that it
has no limits. It’s fundamentally changing the way we do things. With the
increased availability and affordability, the changes are only going to
increase.
Importantly, big data is now starting to move past being simply a
buzzword that’s understood by only a select few. It’s become more mainstream,
and those who are actually implementing big data are finding great success as
there’s an enormous demand for data literate people that’s continually on rise.
This can be seen as in the last two decades, the
volume and speed with which data is generated has changed – beyond measures of
human comprehension. The total amount of data in the world was 4.4 zettabytes
in 2013. That is set to rise steeply to 44 zettabytes by 2020 (44 zettabytes
seems small until you get to know that it is equivalent to
44 trillion gigabytes).
Not
satisfied with our selection or want us to continue this list with some other
names?
Help us by
commenting your suggestions below.
Also, do read the Part I of Life Changing Innovations by clicking on the below given link, if you haven’t read it yet-
/Technology/life-changing-innovations
Keep Reading
and Take Care.
SAYONARA!
NOTE: These are our personal views and may
vary from person to person.
Thank You for Reading.