The proliferation of technologies across the world has led to a global environment of interconnected devices that allow us to communicate with one another constantly. This exponential growth, in essence, is the Internet of Things.
It is the chief idea of bringing all of our lives online so that they can be made safer and easier to lead. However, it goes much deeper and further than that. In the next few years, we are anticipating that more than 50 billion devices will be internet enabled thus adding to the Internet of Things (IoT).
The Internet of Things Is About Being Interconnected
It is simple for us to understand that our iPhones and Android phones can interact with one another. It makes sense to us, so far, that our computers can speak to databases all around the world and download information whenever we want it. What is harder to understand, however, is that our light bulb may soon be an interconnected device.
This is the crux of the Internet of Things. It turns everyday objects into technological wonders that can be operated through a central device connected to the internet.
Essentially, the Internet of Things seeks to create an entire world filled with interconnected objects that make life more dynamic and easier. What does this all mean though? In this article, we are going to explore the Internet of Things and explain just what the implications may be.
The Internet of Things is a concentrated effort to make the entire world connected to one another through their devices. Some fear that this will mean the end of privacy on the internet. This is not the case. The idea of IoT is to make life easier for everyone across the world. For modern people who have smartphones and smart homes, IoT will let you run your entire house from your phone.
The Internet of Things Makes Every Device Smart
The same goes for your car or your boat or any material item that you can control. In other places around the world, it means that information, and access to it, will become more readily available and can be accessed from anywhere around the world.
This means that someone in Ghana can chat with someone in Chicago easily with uninterrupted access. This is what the Internet of Things truly boils down to. Open access to people and information around the world equally. When our hardware devices and appliances are connected to databases around the world then we can have constant updates and reminders sent to us at all times.
We can have a company that constantly monitors our vehicle to make sure that it is in the best shape possible. We can have a company that uses GPS in our backpacks so that we never lose them. We will have a database that stores all of our records in one place so that we are never lost without them.
Our cars may one day hold our driver’s license and registration within them digitally. Our insurance may be accessible through a smartphone, though for many this is already the case. Soon, we hope, that we can have an entire education in our pockets whenever we want it. This ultimately marks the goal of the Internet of Things. Its implications are broad and can be interpreted in a number of ways.
The Internet of Things and the Future of Connectedness
What this will accomplish for us as people is what is truly yet to be seen. When we have access to information and education wherever we are then we will see how the Internet of Things truly impacts us.
In the coming years, every bit of our lives will be connected to the internet in some way. Trains will be connected to the grid and so will buses. Screens will start to pop up on every billboard and on the side of almost every building.
Conclusion
We will see a rise in the amount of automation that we interact with every day and the growth of technology will radically change how we interact with the world around us. It is the simple act of making our lives easier to live and, at the same time, adding complexity to what we do and how we operate.
Will it make us smarter? Will it cause us to be lazier? These things will be answered in the coming years as the technology steamrolls ahead. We have surely seen the first marks of the progress in our everyday lives.
The smart home innovations that allow us to control our temperature and lighting from our smartphones has already made quite an impact on us as a people. Implications, however, are a little more than perplexing. We can only assume that we will be changed dramatically by a world of interconnectivity. How exactly, has yet to be seen.
What we do know is that the Internet of Things will provide information and internet access to the world so that we may truly be equal people. If that is not worth pursuing then I don't know what is.
