For many of us, young and well, older lets say, growing up meant that we would use a number of tried and practiced methods for helping us as individuals get by on a daily basis. If this meant relying on an arranged time to meet someone or reading a map in order to get from one location to another, it worked…ish. This time will seem not so long ago, and part of us will miss the sense of achievement certain aspects that way of life gave us.
If I asked you to imagine a day without your phone (we have even started to drop the mobile from this) you would start to think how you would get by without it, and most probably reject the idea through sheer fright. A number of questions would leap to the forefront of your mind, starting from…what will I use as an alarm in the morning? How will I check what time my train is? or How will I navigate my way to work or client office without the sat nav on my phone? How can I order an Uber cab to pick me up? What about the tube map stored on my phone? All these questions and many more revolve around our reliance on a mobile device or phone to provide us with the information necessary to achieve daily tasks and problems.
Whilst these products and more are improving the lives of people and their ability to be connected almost 24 hrs a day, I just challenge you to think about a method of achieving the same results when you next reach for your phone and select an application or look something up on google. Why is this important? It has started to help me appreciate the effort and great lengths that our parents, grandparents and distant relatives had to go in order find what they were after. Like it or lump it, it has instilled an inherent complacency in the majority of us, which before you know it can start to creep into other aspects of your life.
Digital is as important to us as it is to you. It has created an efficiency, a connection, an affinity to build and grow at an extortionate capacity and rate. Just know what you would do without it, because the very same notion of oxygen to our living and breathing is applicable to digital devices with electricity, without it, both are inactive.