The Benefits of the Internet Age

We all know the internet is likely the most important invention since fire or the wheel! Sometimes we just need to stop for a minute and remember all that it allows us to do. With broadband and wireless internet we can stay informed, in contact, and productive while on the go and anywhere in the world!

Millennials, unlike Generation X and those before them, what it’s like to have to open a hard covered Encyclopedia to research a school topic.

The Internet Age Advantages

Let’s think for a moment all of the benefits that this generation, and those after it, will have most could only have dreamt about a few decades ago!

Life changing benefits of the internet age to business

Online shopping is actually of the biggest catalysts to come out of the internet age. When you stop and think about how it’s changed an entire culture you may be shocked. Amazon is probably the most well known online retail company there is, and they also might be the first stock to reach $1,000 a share, and likewise, the frist company to reach a Trillion in market capitalization.

It’s been several years since I stepped foot into a brick and mortar store during the holiday season. With free shipping and an unlimited selection, combined with the comforts of shopping from your easy chair, it’s easy to understand why people jump at the chance to shop from their laptop.

Especially during the busy bustling cold weather season! When I proposed to my wife I even bought her diamond from Blue Nile online. I will admit that the ring itself I purchased from a local jeweler and then had them set the diamond itself into the ring, but I saved a ton of money on the largest portion of that purchase!

Brick and mortar stores have to price in rent, utilities, labor costs, and general overhead payments. Not to mention the amounts of store inventory that they manage and comes with a carrying cost.

Homework and research for school projects is a whole other area that has improved for this generation. Do you remember micro-fiche? I didn’t think so! Catalog and index cards, dictionaries, encyclopedias, and paperwork text books are quickly becoming past tense.

Now students can do most of their homework and research from home. There are plenty of trust worthy sites online, and even the hard cover and paperback books that we used to check out of the library are available in digital format which you can easily read from your phone or kindle! We are seeing more and more classes being taught online as well.

Online classes were once quite a bit taboo, and generally associated with lower quality schools and colleges. Now we are seeing universities with Top 20 programs offer online classes for entire degrees, and not just the one or two classes like the old days. This helps to mitigate expenses, invested capital into parking lots and buildings, and provides a convenient way of receiving a quality education from anywhere in the world.

There was a time when we had to visit a travel agent if we wanted to book a vacation to somewhere we were otherwise unfamiliar. Perhaps a cruise or a European backpacking trip was too daunting for you to plan on your own.

Then the internet popped up and travel sites like Kayak and Trip Advisor made booking our own travel all that more possible. Kayak, and many sites like it, will compare hundreds of sites to see which ones offer the most convenient fights and for the best prices. Likewise, you can see all hotel availabilities without calling each one individually.

Then there are sites like Trip Advisor that lets you research the hotel properties without taking a travel agents word for it. They even offer the non-glossy photos of real travelers, so you can see what the property, rooms, and grounds look like in real life.

People falsely believe they are saving money with travel agents, and in reality there is always an up charge on travel for using them because they have to get paid somehow! They also tend to steer you in directions where they make more money or kickbacks from certain resorts and hotel chains. The internet is a much more unbiased placed to do your research and book your travel, not to mention you don’t have to leave the comfort of your own home to do so.

With just those few examples above, it’s quite easy to see the benefits that this generation has enjoyed over the ones before it. They say technology is growing at an exponential rate these days, which means that the internet is just the tip of iceberg of what’s to come for this generation and the ones to follow it.

Just remember, every time you complain about your wireless internet going out for an hour, think about what the generations before you did when they didn’t have it at all. 🙂