The introduction of computers to the household has forever changed the way we live. Our home lives are very different from even 50 years ago, approximately 3.2 billion people worldwide have access to the web, 2 million smartphones are sold daily and it is estimated 60% of homes in the developed world have at least one desktop in their home. With this influx of access to technology, specifically computers our lifestyles are bound to be almost completely different from those 30 years ago. How we spend our leisure time at home, how we learn/work at home and how computers have changed home technologies such as fridges, thermostats, etc.
In 2020, using technology such as computers to relax is the easiest it’s ever been. With advancements in computers the Internet was created and from the Internet streaming platforms such as Netflix, Hulu, Disney+. You can watch movies, tv shows in high definition from your phone, tablet, laptop, etc., and even in 4k from your TV. Watching TV has never been easier making it something that many people do in their spare time now even having it take over their lives, but regular cable television channels rating has been on the decline since the introduction to streaming platforms such as YouTube and Netflix. This means families in the home aren’t exposed to the marketing of commercials as most families don’t have cable, to begin with. Playing video games is an ever increasingly popular pastime in the 21st century whether it be console gaming or pc gaming. Many of the youth spend hours playing with their friends online with such as COD or more recently the biggest game in the world Fortnite. Allowing them to make connections with them from home. Making connections with friends isn’t the only connection being made but, families can bond over the games just like watching movies together families can play games such as Minecraft where the parents can also enjoy the games while it being child-friendly. With the introduction of smartphones, people are now able to have conversations over messages and calling on their phone for free over Wi-Fi, meaning without paying a phone plan and without actual face to face interaction people can spend hour upon hour talking from the comfort of their home.
Now that a majority of all homes in the developed world have at least one desktop or laptop, working and learning from home has never been easier. Being an entrepreneur in today's world is now a plausible career path more than ever before thanks to computers. You can set up a company all from the comfort of your home. Monitoring the stock market from your phone or having a whole computer setup dedicated to checking stock all from your home is something many have chosen to do. You can also start a reselling business by purchasing items in your field of expertise/interest and then selling them on the Facebook marketplace, eBay, Amazon or your professional website. For example, if I wanted to make some easy money over the summer, I could easily start to flip items online such as shoes which have high resale value and market my business through social platforms such as Instagram or Snapchat where I could reach those with an interest to purchases shoes quickly and all from my phone not needing to leave my home. A plethora of corporate companies also offer jobs that can be done from the comfort of the home such as tech support or a salesman. The amount of information you can access from home is now an underappreciated byproduct of the invention of the Internet. Millions upon millions of articles, video tutorials are available online making the Internet the world's largest repository of information. You teach yourself a variety of things from basic mathematics to advanced quantum mechanics all from your computer, video tutorials have made learning especially easy as you are now able to see a step-by-step way to do something which books or drawing cannot offer. You are also able to keep up to date with vast amounts of news, scientific discoveries.
With the innovations to home technologies such as microwaves, thermostats, fridges, etc., basic items have become more advanced and efficient by adding additional features making the quality of life at home better than what it already was. By making this simple technology ‘smart’ meaning it’s able to communicate to us or other machines. This advancement opens many doors of opportunities for innovation, for example, LG has created a smart fridge which can account for the inventory in the person's fridge and then use the data to suggest certain recipes and can alert the owner when a certain item is running low, the fridge is also able to communicate the Wi-Fi allowing the owner to send recipes to the fridge which will then be displayed and microwaves can communicate with the machine and give suggest for recipes by taking into account the foods in the fridge. Smart thermostat such as Google Nest, Honey Lyric Well, iDevices Thermostat are smart thermostats which provides a variety of functions such as the ability to remotely change the temperature from an app, self-learning (Google Nest) learns your behavior and adapt from the info so they can set the temperature to your past liking. A smart thermostat saves you money and helps the environment as well. Artificial intelligence devices such the google home or amazon’s Alexa allow the owner to connect various devices through Wi-Fi/ Bluetooth, for example, you can turn your lights on and off provided they are compatible with the AI devices or similar to Siri ask questions like the weather and be answered. You are also able to connect the device to certain tv, speaker and many more things, they can give commands to them through the AI device.
The improvement to computers of the 21st century has made home life quality at a level we’ve never seen before in terms of all you can do from the comfort of your home and not having to leave at all too many daily tasks such as groceries, work, education or leisurely activities. This has expanded your knowledge of how we invest our relaxation energy at home, how PCs have changed home innovations, for example, the use of AI, microwaves and so on and finally how we learn/work at home. This is just the beginning of the computer's impact on the home, it will be extremely exciting to see how our lives at home will be affected in the future.