There are ever more reasons to embrace the digital world. For me the top three, in no particular order are convenience, quality of life and freedom. To make my case I’ll use three areas where the digital revolution has improved my own life immeasurably. The first two concern lifelong passions and the staggering improvements digital has brought to them. The last is more holistic, dealing as it does it with the complete lifestyle change the digital economy enables.
Lets look first at how the digital revolution has impacted one of my first passions, photography. Now in my mid fifties, my interest in photography began as a teenager in the late seventies. Back in those sepia tinged days cameras – even the top end models – were mainly mechanical and used 35mm film. You bought rolls of film that gave you 12, 24 or 36 exposures (very analogue numbers you’ll notice). Unless, like me you ventured into developing and printing your own photos, seeing the results was far from instant.
You took them to the chemist or posted (yes I said posted) them to a lab for processing. If you got them back in less than a week you were delighted – until that is you opened the folder they came back in. Often, despite your best efforts, the results weren’t great. Some would be over exposed, some under, others might have glare or some other artefact. At the point of pressing the shutter there was just no way to tell. Whilst it’s true that this encouraged expertise and fostered a whole industry: Books, college courses and equipment. It also led to a lot of disappointment for the casual snapper.
Sound And Vision In The Digital World

Fast forward a mere decade or so and the first digital cameras appeared. My first digital camera came with my first computer as part of an “entertainment” package. I wasn’t impressed. Even the most basic smart phone cameras produce 10 times better images now. That wasn’t really the point though. You could see the pictures as you took them and decide whether to keep them or not. Then you could look at them on a big screen and edit them. Best of all you could take hundreds of them if you wanted to. Because this was digital technology you just new it would get better – fast. The rest is history. Bye bye film, goodbye high street and postal film labs. Farewell Kodak.
The second area that the digital revolution utterly changed for me was music. Not only as a consumer but as a musician, songwriter and producer. As a consumer we saw the formats move from vinyl (although its making a nostalgic comeback now) and tape through CD’s, mini discs to digital files. As a recording musician and producer things went through the roof.
Then And Now
I cut my home recording teeth on a second hand 4 track tape recorder and drum machine. Both were about the size of small shoeboxes. They were great for tinkering about with rough ideas but could never produce anything remotely professional sounding. For that the aspiring musician or band had to go to an expensive studio. Again, just 10 or 15 years later I had a 24 track digital home studio in the form of a console the size of a small suitcase. A few years on from there my Macbook can do a better job. Rooms full of heavy, expensive, temperamental and highly specialised equipment have been replaced by one little do everything slab of user friendly technology. Record companies are pretty much a thing of the past. Musicians create at home and promote themselves on the internet.
Embrace The Digital World Lifestyle

Now we come to the third and by far the most powerful reason to embrace digital. The fact that it can completely revolutionise the way we can live and work. Whilst this huge move towards digital equipment was going on, the Internet, once akin to a library for military and scientific types, was changing everything else. It started to change and improve the way we communicated, the way we learned things and found information and finally the way we bought and sold things. Being digital itself, the Internet soon became the conduit for all these marvellous new devices.
It very soon became apparent to entrepreneurs that here was an incredible resource to be leveraged. They could buy and sell to a global, 24/7/365 marketplace using virtual stores (websites). Automated processes that could take a mouse click on an image seen on a computer (now on a phone screen) somewhere in the world to a sale were developed. It grew from there. Massive online platforms developed that now provide sellers with insanely powerful advertising resources that reach countless potential customers.
We are at the stage now where anyone who is prepared to learn the skills involved can utterly change their way of life. The 9-5 has become almost redundant. Internet business models have disrupted whole industries. With little more than a laptop and some knowledge, anyone can build a massive business and run it from anywhere they want to in whatever hours suit them best.
Don’t Be A Casualty
Of course like all revolutions, the digital revolution has taken and will continue to take casualties. Those casualties always result from lack of education and knowledge. In the Agricultural and industrial revolutions the casualties were unskilled labourers. The profiteers were the machine builders and operators. In the digital revolution the casualties are far wider. In short anyone who can’t do business on the Internet or can’t offer digital expertise to businesses will suffer. As the digital world moves towards automation and artificial intelligence, computers now threaten most areas of the traditional world. Many professions once thought to rely on humans no longer do.
Personally, as you’ve probably gathered, I take a positive view of all this. When I was laid off from my corporate career in my late forties, I decided to embrace the digital world fully. I invested in my digital education and studied digital business models like affiliate marketing and e-commerce. That enabled me to replace then supercede my previous income. I work far fewer hours, have been able to move to an idyllic rural home and no longer worry about recessions in the traditional economy.
If you are ready to embrace the digital world there are some organisations out there that can help. Learn how to profit from the digital economy by clicking on the link below and subscribing for a life changing series of free videos.
