The proficient use of anything in the modern world – whether it be something on your person, something you were born with, or even something you’ve encountered for the first time is considered by many to be a “skill.” Just like working with materials, cooking, woodwork, and other hard skills, the use of modern technology is just as helpful, and its effects on your life can be highly beneficial. Some of these benefits include:

Whether you’ve just joined the workforce or are starting out, people in positions above or below you at work will frequently reference apps and programs which they will likely assume to be universally known to anyone who spends time within the general vicinity of civilization. Knowing how these apps and programs work beforehand will not only save time for you and your peers in terms of having to explain or ask how they function, or what they have to do with the workplace in the first place, it will also save you the time of going through each new, unique learning experience while you have deadlines to meet. It’s always fun to try new things, and checking out the App Store or the Play Store in your down time might be a good place to start.

Aside from making information and processes available to you at the literal tap of a button, familiarity with technology also allows you to backup important documents, allowing you to quickly organize and access documents. The concept of digital space allows users to keep their physical storage spaces from reaching maximum capacity in too short a time, and a neat space equals a neat mind – backed up and organized in every sense of the word.

In a perfect world, everyone would have followed the initially steady rise of the digital age, effectively keeping them up to speed with the innovations of big names like Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, allowing for a universal familiarity. However, for a myriad of reasons, and a dozen more constraints – whether they be financial or otherwise, have made it so that people either cannot, or refuse to learn the tool of technology. This presents itself as an opportunity, as knowing how to use technology in itself instantly puts you before those that do not in the eyes of potential employers. To learn new things is to say yes to opportunities that have yet to present themselves.

It’s very likely that you have a friend or two that know their stuff when it comes to the tech world. Some telltale signs that might help you spot someone of this kind are:

They exhibit a frequent need to make technology of any kind a conversation topic

They embrace the prominence of tech in their life to a point that it becomes an integral part of their routine

They find that most of their solutions to their (and/or sometimes your) problems involve an app and/or a computer program

These kinds of people would be happy to introduce you to their world, and learning from them can be a team effort. Set a day of the week with them and anyone else that might want to learn how to upgrade their tech skills in your friends group, so you have people on the same page as you during the process. It’s always fun to learn things with your friends.

Not everyone is comfortable with diving head first into a new experience. If you find that you’d rather take baby steps than big leaps, there are many books and magazines you can read that will help ease you into the tech world. If you need the smell and feel of paper, and feel more comfortable having physical words before you, it’s never a bad idea to use what you already know to help you absorb what you’re looking to learn..

Give learning about the digital world time. In return, it will give you intel – in this case, about itself. The more you know how to utilize the digital world, the more it will allow you to learn about itself through various mediums made available to you through it. A good example of this would be mastery over Facebook functions, allowing you to choose what you want on your feed based on what you subscribe to. Another good example would be actively going out of your way to search up tutorials on Youtube on how to use features of other apps and programs. There is a video tutorial on how to execute almost any task or process online. The learning curve for technology is only as steep as you make it.

Taking on projects that are unfamiliar to us can be scary at times, but biting the bullet and learning on the job can be helpful for those who do best under pressure – information sticks more often for those of us who work best when we’re working on the clock. Consider undertaking projects that require you to learn from peers or coworkers that are already familiar with the tech world, and the process might just go that much faster. A greater sense of accomplishment awaits those who start from square one.