When was the last time you heard someone ask, “Can I have your number?” This saying was one of the most common pickup phrases in history, let alone Mad TV made a parody with Nicole Randall Johnson who plays the skit as “Darrell”. In this skit, Darrell repeatedly asks, “Can I have your number… Can I have it?” Fast forwarding to 2017, people now ask, “What’s your Instagram? Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter, Whatsapp, Facebook, and the list can go on—what do all these platforms have in common? They are all applications on a smart device! In a millennial generation, technology and web 2.0 are all characteristics of what this generation is made up of.
1—Snapchat. One of the most famous applications at the moment is Snapchat. This application allows you to have “stories” where all your friends can view what you are up to for the day. Furthermore, the filters that are free with the application are used to make a picture more entertaining by adding funny features. Snapchat can be known as one of the millennial generation’s biggest commodification, which means that a platform that started from software is now generating profits because companies can create a filter for a limited period of time to advertise their product/service. In addition to this feature, Snapchat allows their consumer to create their own filter for a special event. These advertisements and entertaining features leave Snapchat at one of the highest and most popular platforms to make profits off of, let alone free publicity from how many people save pictures with filters on their camera roll.
2—Web 2.0. Web 2.0 is a very crucial term in technology for the millennial generation because web 2.0 is where third parties like me, you and anyone else reading this article can have an input on things that are listed on platforms. Web 2.0 is where people can involve themselves into discussions, state their opinions and have more involvement in the web experience.
A huge example of this would be the comments below section under this article, where my readers and critics of this website can state their opinion on what they think about this article. An application that is famous for web 2.0 is Instagram! People can comment, critic, like, share, and follow others, whether it is a selfie or a boomerang or even an Instagram story.
So how do these applications affect the way we live? All these applications are digital and since we spend so much time on these platforms, we live through a digital world. The digital world has grown so much that there are products to purchase to improve our digital experiences like selfie sticks, fancy phone cases, advanced audio players, and even Polaroid photo printers!
So, hearing our say on what digital life means to us, what do you think about living through a digital world rather than in real life? Comment down below!
