How technology is changing our lives

Thousands of years ago early humans were already using technology to hunt, gather and harvest crops. Since those very first spears and axes, technology has developed very far. Today we live in a world where information travels almost instantly across the Earth. We are in a place where people can travel faster than the speed of sound and where we keep discovering new things and new ways to improve. 

New technology startups are being formed everyday and revolutionary technologies are being developed faster than ever before. Facebook recently bought the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset for two billion dollars after it had been a startup for only a short period of time. Google is building driverless cars which means that future generations may never need to learn to drive. Other companies like Tesla have developed electric sports cars that can go 270 miles in one charge.
Anyone can make a successful startup with a good idea and some hard work.  Well, no you need to be very lucky. You need to be able to betray your close friends and lie straight to peoples faces. You need to be willing to do many things to get your idea out there. Whether it includes sleepless nights or not spending any time with your friends and family, that is all part of the pack. With more and more technological advances it has become increasingly difficult to succeed. 


In the 1900’s school systems were worse and most people did not get a proper education. Now everything is changing, many people from poor parts of the world now have access to the internet where they can learn anything they want.  Facebook and Twitter were just startups with a few people working on a revolutionary idea, social media.  They went from just a few young people to the creators of a billion dollar company.
Mark Zuckerberg is the creator of Facebook. He actually stole the idea and after creating the platform with a close friend of his, he threw him out of the company. Big companies are now getting richer and more powerful. Google, Apple and Samsung are some well known companies that are richer and even more powerful than many entire countries.  As they become richer they can consume small startups to stay in power. They can either buy them or destroy them how they want.  Facebook's attempt to destroy Snapchat after trying to buy it was blatantly obvious. They created Instagram Stories which is basically a replica of Snapchat. Facebook also bought Instagram for a comparatively small amount of money when it was just a startup because they were afraid of some competition. But why are these companies worth so much? Who pays for it all? The apps are free. Where does all the money come from?

It turns out that you are not the consumer, you are the product. If you have angry birds, Instagram, Facebook, etc on your phone, your information and your whereabouts are being sold to other companies. Every search that you have ever made on Google is permanently stored in its database. If you put a beautiful picture on Facebook, don’t be surprised if that picture you took during your  Christmas holiday is suddenly on a popup ad. That picture is owned by Facebook. Google knows more about you than you know about yourself. It sees everything that you have ever searched and knows what you will do before you do it. Facebook even knows your device ID even before you sign in. Gmail can read any of your personal e-mails whenever they want to. A lot of these companies say that this is for security, they say that they look for terrorists and criminals. That is also why the American government, for example can listen to you through you phone, loo at you through you camera and record you. That is why we must ask ourselves if it is worth losing your privacy and your identity for security.

By Kristaps Zilgalvis