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Have you ever had a faulty phone charger and made it work by tying it in a particular way?

Have you ever wondered how different processes in everyday life can be done easier and faster?

Are there “hacks” you have done that made things better for you?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, then you are a technologist!

Whenever the word technology pops up, what comes to mind is most likely metal and computers. For those who are not science inclined, the idea of mathematics and physics simply make them run off and leave people like me with it.On the pinpoint scale, that seems to be what technology is all about. The Oxford Dictionary defines technology as “the application of scientific knowledge for practical purposes, especially in industry. With this description, many can easily exclude themselves from technology and leave all the work to science students, the mixers of advancement.

However, technology can be seen on a more global level.  In the Merriam-Webster dictionary, it is “The practical application of knowledge especially in a particular area.” This definition allows us to explore how everyone is in the technology train.

First of all, we must know why technology is there in the first place. It is simply using knowledge to make life better. Technology is making nature work for us. Peter Thiel, an internet entrepreneur and venture capitalist said that, “any new and better way of doing things is technology.” Improving life in general is technology and therefore, we are alltechnologists.

Throughout the world, technologies (in the usual sense of the word) have been exchanged but the levels of advancement differ significantly. If technology makes things better, why are all countries not placed equally?

It appears imported technologies do not just throw problems away. Indigenous problems require indigenous solutions.A society does not develop rapidly if its people don’t find a way to advance themselves.Those in each society are primarily responsible for their development.

Now that we know we are all technologists. How do we do our job effectively?

The reality is that we already have what it takes to advance the community. Necessity, they say is the mother of invention. The issue is that we easily identify the necessities and have informed discussions about them, but seem to forget that we are the midwives for any invention to be born.

In Nigeria, for example. Many problems are summarily blamed on flawed leadership. As limiting as this seems, the advancement of the state is the job of those living in it. Using our unique areas of knowledge, we can find solutions and implement them using both imported technologies and creating some of our own.

Through the process of observation and critical thought, we can solve our problems and be impressed at the end of the day by tremendous advancement. One advantage that the unsolicited break has given us is time to question the existing systems and find answers. It is time for all technologists to think, learn skills and adapt to their environment by changing approach and utilizingknowledge to improve life.

This task seems insurmountable but I believe that if anything is called a problem, it is because it has a solution.

Technologists… Assemble!

• Elushade Oluwatumininu