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Big Technology Trends Of 2020

By Guardian Nigeria

08 November 2020   |   12:42 pm

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Technology is evolving at such a rapid pace that it is sometimes hard to keep up. As technology evolves, it causes faster change and progress. Individuals and companies that do not keep up with these changes are at the risk of being left behind. Understanding and keeping up with new technological trends will enable individuals…

5G phone near telecom mast – Image: The Guardian UK/Steve Parsons/PA

Technology is evolving at such a rapid pace that it is sometimes hard to keep up. As technology evolves, it causes faster change and progress. Individuals and companies that do not keep up with these changes are at the risk of being left behind. Understanding and keeping up with new technological trends will enable individuals to prepare and grasp the opportunities they provide. Here are some big technology trends of 2020.

5G Network
5G is the fifth-generation mobile network. It is designed to connect virtually everyone and everything together, including machines, objects, and devices. When the news of this network became popular in Nigeria, there was a rumour that this new network brought COVID-19. This is just as funny as it is false. This wireless network is meant to deliver higher peaks network speeds, ultra-low latency, and massive network capacity. In simpler terms, it makes your browsing faster. If you thought 4G was fast, think again. This superfast network gives us the ability to stream music and films at incredible rates, even when we’re on the move. This might mean we will no longer need broadband networks.

Extended Reality
Extended reality refers to all real and virtual combined environments and human-machine interactions. Extended reality enhances the real world using digital details such as images, text and animation. This means the users can still interact and see what’s going on in front of them. Cool right? How cool is it to be able to merge the real and virtual world? Imagine wanting to go on vacation to Hawaii and being able to get a feel of it right from the comfort of your home. Or working from home, but being in the office at the same time. The extended reality market is expected to have reached $209 billion in 2022, which is over seven times what it is today. This growth could mean a whole lot for how lives in, say, 2030.

Anti-ageing drugs
Ouuu.. this one should excite you! These drugs are as their name implies. These drugs are called senolytics–they remove the cells that accumulate in the body as we age. These drugs matter so much because a number of diseases such as cancer, dementia, and heart disease could potentially be treated by slowing ageing. This new development is giving hope to those with incurable diseases. Don’t misinterpret this; these drugs cannot make a seventy-year-old man become twelve again. They can only reduce the rate at which ageing occurs.

AI Technology
Artificial intelligence is one area of technology that never ceases to amaze us. The possibilities of AI are innumerable and beyond the scope of our imagination. Robotisation is not something new, with a lot of companies using robots for different purposes. The different thing about this in 2020, however, is that these robots are now being designed to take on skilled and semi-skilled work as well. Robots are now filling forms, creating reports, and giving instructions. This will increase efficiency and give us more time to focus on other things that require human intelligence. Not to worry, robots are not going to invade the earth. Well, at least not anytime soon.

Blockchain Technology
Even if you don’t know what the term blockchain means, you must know what Bitcoin and Ethereum mean. These are blockchain platforms. Blockchain is a system of recording information in a way that makes it difficult to hack, cheat or change the system. Blockchain might have existed for a while, but 2020 is the year where the real adoption of this technology has materialised into the banking, finance, insurance and practically every business sector. Blockchain chain technology could be revolutionary in industries and this revolution has begun in 2020.