The digital Age

Ainekirabo Mbabazi
Sep 4, 2018 · 3 min read

Technology advancement is one of the most popular discussions in the world today. When we talk of technology, it might seem abstract however it is something that we relate with on a diary basis. To break down this topic, I will start with a story of my day who reports that growing up, once someone had to relay information to a distant relative, they either used messengers, sounding drums or smoke to attract the attention of the other people in the neighborhood. if it so happened that the information had to be relayed to a relative in the city, then, the messenger would have to use a double bus to travel from the villages to the town, this would take the messenger three days to travel from Kabale where my dad was raised to Kampala because the vehicles would not move during the night. That would imply that if someone needed insistence either financially or just information, the earliest feedback he or she could get would be after 6days when the messenger had returned. As the days passed by, he saw the introduction of telephone landlines. this was a great improvement, however this came with its own disadvantages, he recounts that the installation of a landline was done by a company that was located only in the city and whenever one was to have a landline installed in their home, they had to first contact the company who would then travel to your home to install an antenna and this setup would take around three months before you could officially start using a telephone. he says that monthly fees and taxes had to be paid in order to use these phones. with the introduction of Celtel in Uganda, the people saw the rise of a first mobile phone, one that would be purchased and could be functional on the same day, it caught the interest of most rich people at the moment since owning a mobile phone was regarded as a social status ranking.
With this introduction of mobile devices, there has been rapid growth in the services mobile devices offer, these range from mobile money, e-commerce, electronic health solutions and so much more. Today money that formerly took 6days to a week can now be delivered in seconds, the information that formerly took weeks to be relayed could now be delivered in less than a second, lives have become easier. however the more technology advances, the lazier the human beings become. this has stirred up a hunger for solutions that can further simplify their well-being. This saw the rise of more research into diverse fields like artificial intelligence and internet of things, fields that aim at coming up with better solutions and easier solutions.
The world we live in today is one where everything is been automated, from a door switch to a refrigerator, school fees payments to e-banking, e-learning, medical advisory information to the diagnosis of diseases, smart vehicles, smart clothes, and homes. This is the reality at hand, however, what should a person do in order to not be caught off guard?
well, the first option could be seating and watching but I would not go for that, it is just like the way you can go to a phone store each time you need to update, fix a minor problem with your phone or even install a new application on the phone. Programming is not just a field, it is a way of life, just as Albert Einstein said, we cannot solve our problems we the thinking we used when creating them, therefore we need to change our thinking and like Steve Jobs once quoted, everybody should learn how to code because it teaches them how to think.
software development changes live by providing solutions to the problems that we deal with on a daily basis. it equips you with a global way of expressing yourself regardless of your background.
In a world where almost everything is being digitized, the market for the best solution providers is bigger than the people that can solve them therefore if there is an opportunity to develop your skills in this field, it should be taken aggressively.

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