Technology has, in many ways, changed our lives. Some of those ways actually present opportunities that had never existed. Some have simplified our lives, and taken the pain out of many routine tasks.

At the same time, technology has created a confusion in many of us. We often fail to distinguish between the virtual and real worlds. We have hundreds of friends on social networks. We spend hours sharing our updates with them and looking at theirs. We play, we engage in interesting activities, we communicate – all virtually.

Have we ever thought how many days we go back home, and still stare at our smartphones? How many instances when we prefer watching something on the Internet, rather than playing with the kid or talking to the neighbors?

Internet in India becomes more awesome with the advent of 4G

When India was introduced to the world of Internet in 1990's, it was more like a parallel universe – something that existed outside our normal lives, like a magical world that could be entered only from a cyber cafe, often by paying as much as Rs 100 per hour. We were, obviously, expected to have enormous amounts of patience while pages slowly flowed through the dial-up modems.

But soon, things changed dramatically. Popularity of mobile phones that grew in unimaginable pace made the Internet a major part of our everyday lives. Away from the cyber cafe and the boring dial-up modems, our mobile phones opened up the world of Internet in front of us – anywhere, anytime, on demand!

Flipkart introduces #FlipkartImageSearch, a cool new way to shop

Enough has been said about how the Internet has changed our lives. But the thing is, Internet is not yet done with changing our lives. There are millions of people out there, far from the city crowds, who are yet to come face to face with the endless possibilities introduced by the Internet.

Punit Soni (CPO, Flipkart), speaking at the Flipkart IndiBlogger Meet held recently in Bangalore, said that most of these people are now getting exposed to the idea of online shopping. Their window to the world of Internet? the ubiquitous mobile phone. As per Punit, a great majority of the Internet traffic in India is now flowing through the mobile phones. Even in areas that are far from cities, away from facilities that the urban population thinks as necessities, the mobile phone is leading a silent revolution. A revolution to give information to people. A revolution that presents new possibilities.

Stories are a never ending fascination across generations. Colgate, with its latest campaign, has given us all an opportunity to go back to storytelling. Here are some #ColgateMagicalStories that we created recently!

Easiest answer: the browser. This small piece of software actually serves as our exclusive gateway to the world of Internet. Presenting websites in front of us, letting us send and receive emails, helping us explore new ideas, reaching out to people, enriching knowledge, and staying safe.

Yes, browsers of today are no longer just a way to open websites. They have really come a very long way since the time Marc Andreessen released 'Mosaic' to the public in the 90’s.

Now, browsers provide a hundred other ways to ensure that our drive on the information superhighway is exciting, and safe.

Now, 15 years later, the configuration of that PC sounds funny. 800 MHz processor! 128 MB RAM!!

Forget PCs, the mobile phones of this era have lots more processing power than what my old friend had. And the good thing is that they are not done yet.

There are many phones with processors of more than 2 GHz in the market now. And then there are many more joining the race.

With too much of connectivity around, almost anything is available now on the click of a button. We are so used to being surrounded with various communication technologies that we do cannot even think about living without them. As we keep depending on phone, computer and the like for the smallest of tasks, it takes some special occasions to teach us why it is important to be together – with family, friends and other people around us – in this journey of life.

Even the smallest of such occasions might turn out to be very special. Here is one example that happened a few years ago.

A few of us friends had gone to a remote wildlife sanctuary on the eastern side of Karnataka. Being grassland, this place was far from the lush greenery and cool surroundings one would see in its well known counterparts on the west. It was hot day and all the food and juices we had in the car were over even before reaching the location. The muddy rocky road leading to the sanctuary did nothing to help us either, and the entire drive was bumpy.

Watching blackbucks in their natural habitat was, however, worth all this trouble. We spent a good amount of time observing them – and thought about returning only when we started to feel hungry. The nearest town, after all, was about 20 kms away.

Life can be so funny sometimes. When things keep changing, we hope for some stability; and when there's nothing changing, we are upset again. Being stagnant, after all, is as bad as being unstable!

Let us keep the uncontrollable aspects of life out of scope for the time being. That takes the instability part out of the discussion. Good. So what do we do to ensure that we are not being stagnant?

Starting a new life, once in a while, is really a good option. But what does that mean? Leave home, quit the job, start a business?

These are of course great things to do, but not all of us might be able to take such big risks. But the good thing is that even by doing things much smaller than these, we can start a new life.

Example? Here's one.

Housing.com provided an opportunity to write a story around a moment that filled me with optimism and hope for the future. And here is my take on the advantages of being optimistic... always! 

I am one of those people branded a "techie" by the outside world. I work a minimum of nine hours in a box called the cubicle, constantly under pressure of deadlines, bosses, performance reviews and the like. However significant (or otherwise) my work might be, it is very easy for my work to become my life.

That, is dangerous. Work is not life. Not just for the techie in question, but for all of us out here. If some bug (lifeless, that doesn't even exist in the real world!) can make us believe that work is our life, life starts to lose its meaning.

Being under pressure is not a new thing for most employees. I am no exception. So I do get pulled down by pressure. This was one of such situations. Finish an almost impossible task, by end-of-day!