It is rush hour in the elevator, and as I am scrambling for space, I overhear a conversation. A child, possibly 10 years old is explaining how an iPad works to her brother. “All you have to do is press here and slide,” she tells him. “I prefer iPads to Androids. They are faster,” she adds.
As the elevator reaches the ground floor, a light bulb goes off in my head, and I say to myself, “Kids are smarter and wiser, way more than kids raised in the 90s or even before that, all thanks to technology.”
Here are a few statistics; a recent report, part of the Young Canadians in a Wired World research series published, by MediaSmarts- a Canadian not-for-profit charitable organization for digital and media literacy says that nearly all youth are going online. Ninety-nine percent of students surveyed has access to the internet outside of school using a variety of devices.
The report further states, “For many, the Internet is a tool for learning and sharing information: half (49%) of students in all grades have gone online to find information about news and current events and half of the students in Grades 7–11 have sent links to news stories or current events to others.”
On the other hand, according to an Internet World Stats Report, Internet proliferation is 89 % in North America as compared to the world average of 50.1 % as of June 2016.
Rapid advancements in technology and increasing internet proliferation have also changed the way language service industry works. Since we have a demographic largely reliant on the internet for creative solutions, hospitals, clinics, law firms, judicial and other agencies are now switching to video interpretation from telephone interpretation, as it is almost as good as having an interpreter in person but gives them much faster access to an interpreter.
A cost-effective solution, all you need is a laptop/tablet and an internet connection to use this service. It is instant and often used in emergencies. With a large talent pool of video interpreters, we now provide interpretation services to hospitals, clinics, law firms, police stations and various other agencies.
So, if you ever feel the need to use these services, give us a call or request our services online.
Vivek Vijayapalan, Marketing and Communications Coordinator, Toronto, Ontario, May 31, 2017
Sources:
- http://vanierinstitute.ca/online-lives-canadian-youth/
- http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats14.htm