Digital Lifestyle

Digital media represents the artistic convergence of various kinds of hardware and software design elements to create entirely new forms of communication expression. Digital media has transformed the way we communicate and access information. Booking a hotel reservation on TripAdvisor or Bookings.com is a very different value proposition than working with a travel agent. Purchasing a set of songs on iTunes or Spotify is an altogether different shopping experience than walking into a music store. And streaming a movie via Netflix on a high-definition television set or computer tablet has given new meaning to the term video-on-demand. Digital media in the twenty-first century requires a special appreciation for speed, mobility and convenience.

In this chapter, we introduce the word digital lifestyle as a way to describe how various kinds of Electronic Commerce (EC) and social media technologies are used to enhance the way we live. This chapter will look at the importance of digital lifestyle with special attention given to EC and social media.

Electronic Commerce

The combination of the Internet and cellular telephony have greatly expanded the world’s geographical boundaries and hastened the pace of human communication. Today, the Internet has become steadily woven into all aspects of business and leisure. EC represents the ability to sell goods and services electronically via the Internet. The field of EC has come of age as evidenced by the success of such companies as Amazon.com, Netflix, iTunes, Hotels.com and Uber to name only a few. These and other EC companies have fundamentally changed how retail trade is conducted in terms of information gathering, marketing and communication, production and distribution.

Social Media

Social media represents a category of Internet-based activity where a virtual community of users share information through the use of individual profiles and contact information, personal messages, blogs and commentary, and videos. The operative word is “social” since it involves the reaching out and sharing of one’s ideas, thoughts and experiences to a common community of users. Some of the more notable examples of social media, include Facebook, Instagram, Linked-In, You Tube and Twitter.