Essay for New Comm: How Communication Has Changed With New Technology
Society has a desire to connect with each other, learning new languages is one example. Current progression allows for it to become more available. New technology lets communicating globally so much simpler, with various easy to access ways to learn languages; google translate, rosetta stone for example. Not only, learning languages online even the advancement of texting or emailing has made communicating less complicated and quicker. The evolution of technology has moved so quickly, in the last thirty years or so, there has been so many sudden changes to technology. These changes has defined the last few decades and people in them, people who never would’ve dreamed of something like the internet has quickly adapted to it. Social networks are rapidly evolving technology and play an important role in everyday life activities in societies. (Darwish et al., 2011)
There’s no doubt that recent improvements, within the last 10 years, has definitely made communicating to people easier. From writing a 10 page letter about your week because it was too difficult to send one everyday and send it to whomever to now being able to send a text to someone across the world and them receive it in a matter of seconds.They have created new opportunities such as the great interactivity of communication, the personalization of a message. (Garlicki et al., 2013). All these technological advances happened in such a small amount of time, it could some a sense of whiplash. There are people who have yet to turn fourty whom are able to recall a life without internet and mobile phones whilst simultaneously there are teenagers who don’t remember a life without apps, iPads and smartphones. The capabilities, tools and websites we associate with new information communication technologies and social media are now ubiquitous. (Abbott, J, 2011). Technology is still evolving to this day, they are accommodating needs that didn’t even exist ten years ago, and making changes that no one had even thought of eighteen years ago. There is a large juxtaposition with young adults in contemporary society, those who grew with no internet, people who had dial up and new teens whom have only experienced wifi. Its also odd to think about that not only 10 or so years ago each family had a ‘computer room’ and fought about using the computer when they were expecting a phone call.
Some say that because of all these changes people have become disconnected to real life. A lot people have become sucked into the new digital world. http://jadealexandradillon.tumblr.com/post/129956583956/new-communication-technologies-have-created-new. They begin to think of everything in their real life could be uploaded online, they live through their phone and their computer. New communication technologies have created new contexts for social interaction and new challenges for understanding the role of technology in human activity, particularly in altering spatial relationships of interaction. (Keating et al., 2008) These sorts of people also see everything in relation to a social media, things can be sorted into likes, retweets, favourites and reblogs. Social Media is their whole world, only participating so they could film it for SnapChat or tweet about it later. Instead of stopping and smelling the roses they stop to take a photo of the roses for Instagram. Add the correct the amount of filters and caption it “Stopping to smell the roses #roses #life” with varying emoji relevant to the picture for good measure. They would then tweet the photo and put it on Facebook, dominating various platforms that wouldn’t have existed ten years ago. The recent emergence of new media, or better, new communication technologies, has afforded substantial commentary regarding societal effects (Southwell et al., 2008). This is an example of so many different people today who are experiencing such a phenomena. Of course, living through technology is rather problematic phenomenon, but is it new? No. People have addictive tendencies, no matter the decade. They latch onto the newest and coolest trend, become obsessed, it’s just in modern society it’s never been so public and documented. Also smart phones let people to always be connected to the differing but somehow all the same, social networking platforms at all times.
Communication has benefitted immensely with advances in technology. No longer must you wait to receive mail to talk to your friends and close family whom you moved away from for University or work. Gone are the days where you only have the option of paying lots of money to talk over the phone with people who live overseas. Skype and FaceTime allow for you to either have just audio phone calls or have audio visuals calls where you are able to see them. Several applications allow for people to talk worldwide for free iMessage, WhatsApp and Facebook messenger. It’s possible to give livefeed on what you are doing and your whereabouts thanks to Twitter and Facebook. One can also send or upload photos and videos because of SnapChat and Instagram. Many different people leave home and move, whether it be state or country, in most cases there is someone that they still want to be able to message and be in contact with, whether it be their best friend or a family member these apps let them still be able to talk. There is also the added bonus of being able to telecommute to work and have conference calls across the world, which saves money within different companies. As well as using the new technology to send emails across varying places within minutes, other social media is utilised for company's, new marketing techniques used specifically social media. Information and Communications Technologies facilitate communication, processing, and transmission of information by electronic means. (Batagan, L, 2006).This allows for the company and their consumers to have a personal relationship and be able to communicate with each other. Using their facebook and twitter pages consumers can praise or complain their new products, the company’s can see this and respond accordingly, connecting the consumer and the corporation in the same way friends and family do with each other. This new digital age has allowed for modern society to become the most connected people in history.
Communication has evolved naturally, as most things do and society has accommodated to these changes promptly. Of course, as it was aforementioned there are drawbacks, they could be fixed or worked around and the pros definitely outweigh the cons. Being able to talk to friends around the worlds is obviously beneficial to people worldwide. Many companies now rely on new media technology to communicate with their consumers, helping them in the end. The argument that perhaps people are too connected is rather a problem with society instead of a reflection technological advancement. Communicating has never been more accessible, and if they continue to create and evolve technology at the same rate, it will only get easier.
Dobek-Ostrowska, B. & Garlicki, J. 2013, The impact of new technologies on political communication: western patterns and the case of Poland, , Frankfurt am Main.
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Yzer, M.C. & Southwell, B.G. 2008, "New Communication Technologies, Old Questions", American Behavioral Scientist, vol. 52, no. 1, pp. 8-20.
