What Does Being Digitally Literate Mean? AI is taking the jobs away from us that were redundant and didn't require much mental capacity
By Karan Shah
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
You're reading Entrepreneur India, an international franchise of Entrepreneur Media.
Let's understand it this way- back in the day, knowing excel used to be a big deal. Every resume that I made for myself during college days said "Proficiency in Microsoft Excel, PPT, Word'. Today, using excel is a minimal requirement. Similarly, today's equivalent of being digitally literate means knowing the basics of all online platforms. What makes you stand out today are skills like coding and data analytics.
Tomorrow, they too will be a minimal requirement, this is the inevitable future.
The four pillars of digital include
Coding
Digital Design
Digital Marketing
Data Analytics
Why just these four? Because that's all you need for building the companies of tomorrow. You need a coder to build it, a designer to make it look good, a marketer to sell it and an analytics person to optimize it.
Hence having even one of these digital skills can prove to be a great asset for anyone today.
Opportunities that being digitally literate bring on board:
1. Take any business online
The number of customers to be found online will always beat the physical limitations of brick and mortar. Roughly, only 18% of the world's businesses today are online and the rest don't know how to get there.
2. Build your own brand
"Developing your personal brand is key to monetizing your passion online." — Gary Vaynerchuk
Don't think of it as being an influencer, look at it as - following your passion. Being socially active and sharing valuable content that you're passionate about could get you the recognition only fifteen-year long hardships could bring.
The idea is to create an audience that loves the authentic you.
This can allow you to not only start a product line in a matter of weeks but also put you in the limelight.
2. Start your own blog
You can earn massive payouts with advertising options such as Ad Sense, Facebook Audience Network and many other options that are available out there today.
Having a large number of visitors on your blog can give you an opportunity at a great earning opportunity similar to the old school broking - Affiliate Marketing. Today, all major e-commerce websites offer a program for affiliates that offer a great commission.
Best part? It's all passive income.
4. Freelance or Digital Nomad
A freelancer is a person who is self-employed and is not necessarily committed to a particular employer long-term. And it is high in demand. So today, being a freelancer can easily mean earning better than most desk jobs have to offer.
While a digital nomad is similar to a freelancer but is not restricted to any physical location, they travel from place to place. Hence the term - Digital Nomad.
If you Google -"Top Freelancing Industries", the top results are- graphic design and web design. Hence, digital skills are extremely vital.
Also, it's super easy to get gigs to work on with a great freelance platform like Fiverr, Upwork, Freelancer, Indifolio and many more.
5. Build your own business
As discussed earlier, the four pillars of digital are the foundation to build companies of tomorrow. If you think you have a vision and want to see it come to life, all you need is a little digital literacy, the right skill set and you can truly actualize your dreams.
6. Be a consultant, you'll be most valuable
Most people don't have these skills. So anyone who's ahead of the curb gets the most benefit of mastering these skills which are being financially secure.
Quick Bonus - Types of income
You may already know this but there are two types of income primarily:
Earned/active Income - The income you basically exchange your time for.
Passive Income - Recurring or non-recurring income that is generated with activities that require a one-time effort or zero-time investment from your side.
We can sum up the article in one sentence, it would say:
"Create enough passive income to cover your active expenses, and then you won't need any active income and will be financially free"
Most digital jobs offer the opportunity to earn money passively, which is what we need today!
Conclusion
The only thing AI and Machine Learning is doing for humans is taking away the manual labour intensive jobs human beings used to do. It is taking the jobs away from us that were redundant and didn't require much mental capacity. These redundant jobs are being automated so that human beings can use their brains for innovating and doing better for humanity. This is where digital skills play an important role. Just like all the jobs today require you to know how to use a laptop, all jobs tomorrow will need you to have the general knowledge of digital skills.
