If you’re an introvert like me, 2021 brought some great changes, for example it is now socially acceptable to watch your pizza delivery driver through your Ring Doorbell and wait for him to put your order on the porch before opening the door thus avoiding any awkward small talk.
Aside from contactless delivery let’s take a look at some of the top trends that 2021 brought us.
- Increased development of the 5G network
- Shifting to smart houses, cities, and cars the demand for fast and reliable internet was higher than ever. In 2021 we saw new infrastructure and application developments from large companies like Verizon and Ericsson.
- Zoom
- With schools turning to online options and a large portion of the workforce going remote, Zoom went from a small start up founded in 2011 and just barely going public in 2019 to becoming a household name.
- Telehealth and Telemedicine
- Working to reduce contact and lower the exposure of Covid-19, many healthcare practices started offering video chats, A.I. based diagnoses, and no contact medicine delivery. A researcher predicted that early in 2021 almost one billion virtual health visits took place.
- Drug and vaccine development
- Many researchers put drug trials on hold to help with the development of the Covid vaccine, Pfizer and Moderna were the first to develop the mRNA vaccines in human history and made huge technological advancements.
Many behaviors trickling from 2020 became the new normal in 2021 which helped drive huge technological advancements throughout the year. With Covid19 and the Omicron variant on the forefront of everyone's mind only time will tell what advancements we make in 2022.