Economy

The Czech Statistical Office has recently published data on the use of information and communication technologies. As far as hardware is concerned, we are doing well, not just in absolute numbers, but in particular, we have long been successful in catching up with the developed part of the EU. Today we occupy 15th place in the ranking of all EU countries and we are "only" 4 percentage points below average. Looking at these facts and at the crowd on the streets and in the public transport, when almost everybody is holding some of these smart devices in their hands, we would appear to be a technology oriented country. But if we take a closer look, we will find that in the use of social networks we are 6th in the EU from behind - and if we look at that crowd again, we will find out why. Ignoring the fact that Prague underground is not covered by a signal, most of the people I see are taking advantage of their expensive smart devices from a very small part, let’s say just from 10% (and no, I am not talking about the battery capacity). You can play noughts & crosses or just text with your buddy even with a button-control mobile phone without internet connection. The hardware you have at home or in your pocket can orient you around the world, you can learn, watch lectures, network, publish ... and about a million other things, everyone knows about them. So please turn off jumping color balls and start looking (virtually) around yourself!