With the internet, combined with new and advanced devices, recent technologies, and today's social communities, people are literally holding the world in inside their pockets in real-time.
Information is new to most, and today, it's where part of an overall discussion about where technology is heading. Almost everything today is related to technologies, and this has advanced further beyond the expectation of most people.
Tracking, data mining and collaborative filtering are now the way things are done. With them, there is now a little chance for finding something by accident, or stumbling into something useful while not searching for it. The more our data is used to determine our needs and desires, the less chance there is for pleasant surprises.
With Google as a place for people to search for almost everything they need, catching up with recent news from friends from social media networks such as Facebook that has over a billion users. Sharing opinions on blogs, asking and answering questions on forums, the emerging of commercial augmented reality, faster internet connection, wider range of cellular coverage and cheaper cost for technologies are some jump starts that people made to be used and enjoyed in today's advancing era of information.
Apple's iBeacon technology that is location-aware, context-aware, pervasive small wireless sensor beacon which knows where its users are, and Google's contextual ads, are some that aim to produce data that delivers us targeted information - and the ultimate product - personalized just for us.
The extent of what these services know can be cautiously alarming: like for example, to see what Google has collected about people over the years. People are, to those who use that information to sell people back to themselves.
All of us have our own way in which we can willingly accept technological intrusions. We can optionally "opt-out" and switch out devices off at any time without any laws interfering. The problem for most people is that people don't know what they are opting-in to.
With almost everything related to technologies, users have the option to "opt-in" or "opt-out" whenever they want. Although popular "free" technology services never totally disclose to what, how, or where they keep, use and share users' personal information, they usually have a policy that says what people can share and what they shouldn't, despite they don't usually say how they use those personal data after the user opt-out.
These data gathering and tracking technologies undoubtedly have huge benefits, beyond contextual convenience. But everything comes at a cost. Safety comes at the cost of privacy, free online services at the cost of control over people's personal information, and perhaps, everyday tracking at the cost of the chance for surprises. And with the government eavesdropping on personal information, people can say that nobody is totally safe although they are not addressed into anything.
With new technologies emerging, the chances of being communicative as a "regular" human slowly cease, replaced by a more convenient, smarter, faster and effective way of digital communication. Could something as seemingly basic as a handshake and an introduction be a thing of the past? Is this acceptable for everyone? Probably not.
Since technologies are meant to aid human life, most people agree that technology is never meant to replace human's way of traditional social interaction. The advance of technology definitely will not stop until people are satisfied with what they have, and the chances are it will never stop since people are never satisfied for what they have. Until then, we can just see technologies advancing beyond today's imagination.