TECH
LET’S GET DIGITAL WITH JANUSZ BAGINSKI Living in today’s digital world can mean differently to those born into this writer’s as well as my subject’s generation than the younger generation—the millennials, the Gen Z, and the Gen Alpha.
A: Digital solutions have enabled many groups of people to live a more comfortable and happier life compared to the past. However, new challenges appeared. For example, it is easier to get access to confidential data. First and foremost, the symbol of changes is the closure of a number of bank branches because account holders do not need to physically be present to do things. Many services can be offered over the phone or through a video link. TFL got rid of paper bus tickets and the payment can be done by using either a debit/credit card or an oyster card. As a result, journeys are hassle-free and expedient. Furthermore, everybody has access to the timetable on the phone; therefore, it is much easier
dictionaries and paperback thesauri and the lessons I learned from the books on my shelves in the corner of my living room back in the day have never escaped me. On the other hand, much of the same amount of all the things I’ve seen on the internet have left me searching for them again and again when the need to remember them arises. Who better to share more about his personal experiences than Janusz Baginski, a professional linguist, one of London’s and neighboring cities’ most sought-after courtroom translators, and one of my favorite cousins-in-law? Q: What do you think is the impact of the digital age on today’s society?
HERE’S NO SOFT-PEDALLING the fact that gone, albeit not yet totally, are those days where one had to register and present one’s ID card upon entry to the library and use a card catalog to locate a specific book— or move mountains, cross the bridge, and sail the seven seas which breaks the bank to see one’s significant other, be interviewed and get hired by a potential employer, report to one’s workplace and perform one’s tasks, walk in to a government agency to process important documents or a private office for a business transaction, drive to a faraway coffee shop or dine in a fancy restaurant for a meeting or two, hop from one mall to another to see the latest fashion trends, or commute to the airline company sales office to buy flight tickets and queue up early to check in at the airport. While I’m grateful to the present day for the easy access to information which is just right under my nose or at my fingertip, I can’t help feeling nostalgic on the good old days where I was always caught burying myself in paperbacks, hardcovers, print magazines, and newspapers all day. Thanks to the generation I was born into, I can say that I’m both lucky and blessed to have experienced the best of both worlds. In a nutshell, most, if not all, of the words and phrases I memorized from my hardbound T
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