40 totally amazing technological advancements that we don't even notice anymore

Many of us rely a great deal on our smartphones these days. Just two decades ago, we didn't have these portable lifesavers that can do just about everything for us.

Now we can manage our lives with the tap of a finger, from scheduling bill payments to shopping for groceries.

Instant news alerts on our phones allow us to stay connected and aware as a collective society.

Online dating apps like Tinder, Bumble, and Hinge have replaced how people have traditionally and organically met people.

We no longer have to stress about remembering login information when smartphones can save all of that for us.

Who uses buttons anymore? Many devices, like smartphones, store kiosks, and laptops, use touch-screen technology now.

Biometric authentication used to be reserved for spy movies. Now we can use our thumbprints to unlock our phones.

Our watches don't just keep time anymore. Now we can use smartwatches as extensions of our smartphones to take phone calls or send text messages.

Paper road maps are next to extinct thanks to Global Positioning Systems, or GPS. Apps like Apple Maps and Google Maps make it easy to type in our destinations and go.

What's a blind spot? Rearview cameras in our cars make reversing a breeze.

Platforms like Airbnb, Uber, Lyft, and Getaround have normalized riding in a stranger's vehicle or staying in a stranger's home, completely transforming how many of us travel.

We can listen to music or podcasts with tiny speakers that go into the ear instead of the big and clunky headphones we used in the past.

Bluetooth isn't just for hands-free headsets anymore. Now we can sync our phones to speakers or our car stereos, home security systems, and other things.

We had to wait days — sometimes weeks — for our messages to reach us via snail mail. But messages sent over email reach us in seconds.

Streaming sites like Netflix and YouTube put cat videos, award-winning TV shows and movies, music videos, and so much more right at our fingertips.

No need to pay $15 for a movie ticket. There are big-budget, quality movies headed straight to our Netflix accounts all the time.

Rushing home to catch a new episode of our favorite shows is a thing of the past. Now we can use DVR to schedule recordings of the programs we choose in advance.

Bulky, beastly televisions have been replaced with sleek, high-quality, and flat screen TVs.

Devices equipped with 4G allow us to connect to the Internet wirelessly, like on a bus for instance. That speed will only increase when the next generation, 5G, rolls out in coming years.

We can use our devices with WiFi to access the internet without needing a physical connection, which is a massive improvement on the days of yore when we needed an Ethernet cable.

Personal news travels fast thanks to social media platforms, which allow us to stay constantly tuned-in to the lives of our friends and family.

Debit and credit cars have rendered carrying cash in our wallets less of a necessity. And the chip-and-pin credit cards are making these transactions more secure than ever.

Source: USA Today

Search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo have given people access to large amounts of information right at their fingerprints.

Whether it's a TV, a speaker, or the lighting in our homes, we're able to alter the settings of our home devices from the comfort of the couch thanks to technology

Voice-activated assistants like Amazon's Alexa or Apple's Siri allow us to use our voices to control technology, a feat people years ago only dreamed would exist in the future.

With wireless speakers, we can amplify our music without the need for cables.

Before music libraries were a staple of the smartphone, the iPod was the most efficient way to listen to music on-the-go. Apple's 2001 release of the first iPod Classic was the beginning of the end for CDs.

Apple iTunes launched in 2001 in conjunction with the iPod, transforming the CD collection into a digital music library for users.

Streaming music platforms like Spotify and Apple Music have taken the digital music library one step further, giving users easy access to a vast library of streamed content.

Platforms like FaceTime and Skype operate over the internet, making work conferences, long-distance relationships, and family check-ins a cakewalk.

Work messaging systems like Slack, Google Hangouts, and Skype have also normalized remote work, allowing employees to connect regardless of office location.

"The cloud" has also been a game changer for businesses, whose employees can remotely access information instead of from a physical hard drive.

We can strap on a pair of goggles and enter a new world with virtual reality.

Wii sports and the Microsoft Kinect got us used to the idea of waving our arms around to play games. Nowadays, apps like Snapchat and Facebook Messenger let us turn our faces into video game controllers.

E-readers like the Amazon Kindle provide users with the ability to carry thousands of books in a single, slim tablet.

The launch of the tablet provided the perfect medium between the compact smartphone and the readability of a desktop.

Before smartphones came installed with front-facing cameras, selfie posers had to fly blind. Without that piece of tech, it'd be difficult to snap a shot of yourself properly.

Many people have traded in their film cameras for digital cameras, and even their phones. With digital photography, we can shoot endless photos, see what we've got, and re-shoot if we're not pleased with the result.