It is through technology that mankind has accomplished all its feats. Learning how to make fire allowed us to cook our food and create more advanced tools. The production of gunpowder gave birth to firearms, revolutionizing warfare as we once knew it.
Today, technology is advancing at a much more rapid rate. Since the invention of the internet in 1983, so much has changed in human society. Access to necessities has never been easier, increasing people’s quality of life in most parts of the world.
Moreover, many innovations in automation and artificial intelligence have increased efficiency and expanded the capabilities of various industries.
But perhaps the most significant impacts of technological advancements can also be seen in day-to-day life. How has technology helped the average laborer get through each workday?
Making services more accessible
The average worker needs to manage their time wisely, especially if they live in the city. Between taking a bath, preparing and eating breakfast, traveling to work, and doing other chores, plenty of time is already consumed before one can even start working. Thankfully, advancements in technology have made time-saving services more accessible.
Instead of cooking, one can use online food delivery services such as UberEats and DoorDash to acquire a scrumptious meal within minutes. Instead of spending an hour or more in public transportation, one can book a ride through transport network vehicle services like Uber to save time.
Are you working from home, needing to get groceries, but too busy to go out? Online grocery delivery services such as Walmart+ and Amazon Fresh can provide you with all your grocery needs as you work. Perhaps you have accumulated a ton of laundry but just as you decide to finally deal with it when you get home, your boss tells you to work overtime. For circumstances such as this, online laundry services such as Hampr has your back.
These fast services are made possible by a combination of various technologies such as wireless internet and smartphones. They provide employees with a lifeline during messy situations, particularly ones where they’re running against the clock. For some, these services become a part of their daily routine, allowing them to spend more time on things they value more.
Other helpful everyday services
- Handy – If there are things that need fixing at home, and you can no longer make room in your schedule, this online handyman and cleaning service can provide you with backup. Handy provides a wide range of services such as home cleaning, home painting, and furniture assembly.
- TaskRabbit – For any other task you no longer have the energy or time for, TaskRabbit is the service to avail of. This online service can take care of almost any task that you need to accomplish. The breadth of tasks TaskRabbit can help you with is impressive, but it’s best for dealing with niche tasks such as assembling certain furniture or acting as a proxy in a long queue.
- Factor – If you’re too busy to the point where you can’t even cook a meal using the ingredients you’ve had delivered, meal delivery services such as Factor can help you. Factor offers fully prepared meals created by chefs and dietitians. Apart from saving you time buying ingredients, deciding what to cook, and cooking, this wellness tech also helps ensure you always eat a healthy meal.
Making communication instantaneous
Among all the technological advancements humanity has seen in the past decades, seamless communication might be the most important. From waiting weeks and months to receive or send a letter, we’ve come to the point where we can send lengthy messages and various media instantaneously.
Being able to communicate quickly and efficiently has allowed us to pull off greater feats. However, we should not discount how much this technology has improved the daily lives of individuals. Workers, in particular, benefit greatly from being able to connect with family, friends, and colleagues during their daily routines.
- Staying in touch with family and friends – in the midst of a hectic work week, it can be easy to lose time with your friends and family. You might get too busy at work that you’ve forgotten to allocate a few minutes of your day to check up on your loved ones or catch up with friends. Instant messaging apps like Messenger, WhatsApp, and Viber make it so you can contact the important people in your life easier, even while at work.
- Communicating with colleagues – collaboration apps like Slack, Microsoft Teams, and Trello have revolutionized the way teams communicate. In the office setting, these tools have significantly improved the quality of communication between employees. These programs have also allowed fully remote teams to function just as well as on-site teams. Employees, especially those who have social anxiety, are able to communicate well with their teammates with the help of these communication tools.
Automating mundane tasks
The everyday life of employees is filled with mundane, repetitive, and tedious tasks that they hate but have to do. Thankfully, advancements in programming have made automating these tasks possible.
If you’re among the many people who often find their inbox inundated with unimportant emails, apps like Unroll.Me can automatically organize your emails. Instead of repeatedly deleting emails or manually unsubscribing to the dozens of email lists you don’t even recall subscribing to, you can let Unroll.Me do it for you.
Another mundane task many workers face in the digital age is managing their passwords. From work accounts to personal accounts, the average employee has dozens of usernames and passwords to remember, unless they use the same pair for every account, which is a big no-no if they want to protect their data. Password managers like LastPass and Dashlane can take away the hassle of creating strong passwords and remembering them. These apps allow you to generate the strongest passwords possible, have them saved with the corresponding username and website, and ensure they can’t be accessed by anyone else but you.
Sure, these apps can’t automate real-world tasks such as making the bed, taking out the trash, or walking your dog, but when your schedule is so packed and your body so tired, any tedious task eliminated is a gift.
Enabling remote work
Keeping a full-time job without having to leave the comfort of your home is something unimaginable decades ago, but in the post-pandemic age, it has become common and in some industries a standard. It is not only the cultural shift the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated that made fully remote work accessible for more people, it is also the dozens of technological advancements throughout the years.
Fully remote teams have become possible thanks to a handful of technological breakthroughs. High-speed internet, collaboration and communication programs, laptops and desktop computers, and superb cybersecurity have given birth to remote setups that effectively replace the traditional in-office setup. Employers are more willing to offer fully remote work as they can rely on various technologies to ensure workers meet productivity goals and avoid falling prey to phishing scams.
Today, many employees enjoy the benefits that come with remote work. Working from home allows them to skip the daily commute, cut down on expenses, save time and energy, and remain close to their loved ones.
Final word
From booking a ride to work and ordering food to managing their passwords and joining online meetings, technology has a significant influence on an employee’s daily life. Some may argue that people are being too dependent on these technologies, but why shouldn’t they rely on them? It’s their hard work that allowed corporations to produce these applications in the first place.