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Let me ask you something: Do you take your cell phone everywhere, even to the bathroom? Have you ever run into someone while walking down the street because you were staring at your phone? Do you check your phone several times an hour? Do you spend five hours a day or more tethered to your cell phone? Are you part of the 60% of adults who keep their cellphones next to them when they sleep?

Yes? Well congratulations! You’re part of the 90% of Americans who carry their phone with them constantly, even to bed. But this (supposedly) won’t be the case for much longer. At the current pace of technology, some people believe we’ll move past our reliance on mobile screens within 3-5 years.

Have you ever gone home excited to binge-watch your favorite Netflix show, only to discover your internet connection is incredibly slow? So slow that you wait, watching that spinning wheel for what feels like an eternity, but it’s so painful that you finally give up?

Japan adopted a translation of the Western word “privacy” because, in traditional Japanese, there is no word for it. But in our rapidly changing world, a new question has arisen: do we still need the word? Is privacy a thing that still exists (or if it exists now, will it continue to exist in the future?)

Although I find myself pondering the concept of privacy quite often, what sparked my imagination this time was Amazon’s Echo Look, a new product with Alexa’s features that also lets you take full-body photos and videos to collect and compare outfits. To me, the benefits of “seeing myself from every angle” and “getting a second opinion on which outfit looks best” could never outweigh the costs of putting a camera in my bedroom. I mean, how often do I (or most people) really need to take photos of their outfits? This product is a bit of a stretch.

It seems obvious who will really benefit from this product – Amazon.

Today Snapchat released a feature update that almost caused me to drop my phone. I’m almost positive if someone had seen me at my desk, my face looked something like this.

Along with releasing the ability to draw with emojis and to erase items from pictures (which are both wonderful updates, IMO), they did something unimaginable:

May 9th, 2017 is the day Snapchat added an "infinity" icon that lets friends view snaps for as long as they want.

To say it more directly, today is the day Snapchat showed they’re scared of Facebook.

People like to joke that the only real constant in life is change, but change has an interesting way of affecting people that often results in resistance. This resistance usually comes from a fear of disruptions to established patterns, jobs or power. At the time of any technological advancement, there are always skeptics who adamantly say they’ll never accept change because of concerns over health, freedom and security.

But these days, it’s hard to imagine life without the technological innovations we once feared. It’s also difficult to understand how society was so afraid of the “scandalous” advances that now seem normal and, arguably, indispensable. It begs the question: what technology do we fear today that may become the norm tomorrow? And will our tech-induced anxiety stand in the way of our advancement?