We’re Living in a Digital World
Madonna, David Bowie, Lady Gaga: Some of the most successful entertainers in show business have been renowned for reinventing themselves. But, when you think about how much our lives have changed over the years, reinvention has become a part of our everyday routines as well.
Twenty-five years ago, we had to stay at home if we were expecting a phone call. We had to go inside the bank to deposit our paychecks and withdraw cash. We paid our bills through the mail and lamented the rising cost of a single stamp.
But, it’s the 21st century, and now most tasks can be done electronically or virtually. The way we communicate with each other, conduct business, learn new skills and information, and even entertain ourselves has been transformed. It’s also changed the way we manage our finances. If we maintain a life insurance or annuity policy for you and you’d like to learn more about how to get online access to that policy, please don’t hesitate to contact us.
[CLICK HERE to read the article, “After 20 Years, It’s Harder to Ignore the Digital Economy’s Dark Side,” from Harvard Business Review, March 11, 2016.]
[CLICK HERE to read the article, “Why Estonia Is Letting Entrepreneurs Become ‘E-Residents,'” from Harvard Business Review, March 9, 2016.]
It’s truly amazing how much the digital era has changed society. Amazon has all but eliminated the need for a traditional bookstore. Google has rendered encyclopedias obsolete, and GPS has turned maps into relics suitable for framing.
But of course, reinventing ourselves and society as a whole due to advancements in technology comes with some pitfalls. There are always a few bad apples who will abuse what’s available to them. As a result, new innovations create the need for new laws, structures, norms and approaches to help put guardrails on what information we can access and how we use it.
[CLICK HERE to read the article, “In Privacy Law, It’s the U.S. vs. the World,” from Communications of the Association for Computing Machinery, February 2016.]
When there are no rules, or the ones that exist are ambiguous, we may have to rely on the court system to provide clarification. Today’s judicial branch of the government is littered with lawsuits that no one could have dreamed of 20 years ago. For instance, “throttling” is when your cellphone carrier slows your data speeds down because you exceed a certain data threshold in a given month (even if you have an unlimited data plan).
When you consider how hard it must be to police such activity, it’s easy to yearn for the good old days, when a phone was tethered by a cord, and you had one easy-to-understand bill. At the same time, you must equally weigh the inconveniences when comparing today to the past. Like it or not, technology will continue to evolve, and we believe the more willing you are to reinvent, the more enjoyable life will be.
[CLICK HERE to read the article, “AT&T Dodges Data-Throttling Class-Action Lawsuit,” from Digital Trends, March 14, 2016.]
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The information contained in this material has been obtained from third-party sources believed to be reliable, but accuracy and completeness cannot be guaranteed; it is not intended to be used as the sole basis for financial decisions.
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