Technology and Communication
For many of us, communicating with family used to mean sending letters and cards through the mail and getting no response until weeks later. We'd pass hand-written notes to friends in class. We'd pick up the telephone—paying for long-distance calls, no less—and could only talk to one person at a time. On top of that, there were no answering machines to leave messages if a person wasn't home, or Caller ID to screen calls if we didn't feel like picking up the phone. And pay phones were the only option to call home if our car broke down on the side of the road, or if we had to stay after school.
Technology affects almost every aspect of our lives. Just look around you and you'll see how wired we are. Thanks to the internet, virtually anything you desire can be delivered to your door in a matter of days. Personal information is more accessible over the Internet as well -- you can look up everything from a long-lost cousin to the registered sex offenders in your neighborhood. You can even trade stocks or file taxes online. Parents don't need to lose sleep waiting for their teenage daughter to come home -- they can just call her cell phone, or send an unobtrusive text, to check up.
As communication and information travels faster and faster, the world seems smaller and smaller, and this has large implications for the way we conduct business. Storing important in files on a computer rather than in drawers, for instance, has made information easily accessible. Using e-mail allows businesses to communicate and send these files quickly to remote locations outside of an office.
Many argue technology has blurred the line between professional and private lives. Wireless Internet, cell phones and BlackBerries have made it easy to work from home -- or for that matter, from the beach. The fact that it's easy to work from the beach compels people to do so. On the flip side, people also feel compelled to use Internet access at work for personal reasons. In this way, technology allows workaholics to work and slackers to slack
Technology affects almost every aspect of our lives. Just look around you and you'll see how wired we are. Thanks to the internet, virtually anything you desire can be delivered to your door in a matter of days. Personal information is more accessible over the Internet as well -- you can look up everything from a long-lost cousin to the registered sex offenders in your neighborhood. You can even trade stocks or file taxes online. Parents don't need to lose sleep waiting for their teenage daughter to come home -- they can just call her cell phone, or send an unobtrusive text, to check up.
As communication and information travels faster and faster, the world seems smaller and smaller, and this has large implications for the way we conduct business. Storing important in files on a computer rather than in drawers, for instance, has made information easily accessible. Using e-mail allows businesses to communicate and send these files quickly to remote locations outside of an office.
Many argue technology has blurred the line between professional and private lives. Wireless Internet, cell phones and BlackBerries have made it easy to work from home -- or for that matter, from the beach. The fact that it's easy to work from the beach compels people to do so. On the flip side, people also feel compelled to use Internet access at work for personal reasons. In this way, technology allows workaholics to work and slackers to slack
What is Social Media?
Social media has been described as “Social Media is an instrument on communication, like a newspaper or a radio, so social media would be a social instrument of communication”.
For previous generations communicating with family members used to consist of writing a letter, stuffing an envelope, buying a stamp and sending it through the post office. It could take days or weeks to get a response. Hand written notes would be passed to friends in class. The telephone on the wall or table would be used to dial up a person. There were no answering machines to leave messages if a person wasn't home. Caller ID didn't exist so you didn't know who was calling. Pay phones were the only option to call home if your car broke down on the side of the road, or if you had to stay after school.
Some of the types of social media are:
Social media has been described as “Social Media is an instrument on communication, like a newspaper or a radio, so social media would be a social instrument of communication”.
For previous generations communicating with family members used to consist of writing a letter, stuffing an envelope, buying a stamp and sending it through the post office. It could take days or weeks to get a response. Hand written notes would be passed to friends in class. The telephone on the wall or table would be used to dial up a person. There were no answering machines to leave messages if a person wasn't home. Caller ID didn't exist so you didn't know who was calling. Pay phones were the only option to call home if your car broke down on the side of the road, or if you had to stay after school.
Some of the types of social media are:
- Social Networks - Services that allow you to connect with other people of similar interests and background.Usually they consist of a profile, various ways to interact with other users, ability to setup groups, etc.
- Bookmarking Sites - Services that allow you to save, organize and manage links to various websites and resources around the internet. Most allow you to “tag” your links to make them easy to earch and share.
- Social News - Services that allow people to post various news items or links to outside articles and then allows its users to vote on the items. The voting is the core social aspect as the items that get the most votes are displayed the most prominently. The community decides which news items get seen by more people.
- Media Sharing - Services that allow you to upload and share various media such as pictures and video. Most services have additional social features such as profiles, commenting, etc.
- Microblogging - Services that focus on short updates that are pushed out to anyone subscribed to receive the updates.
- Blog Comments and Forums - Online forums allow members to hold conversations by posting messages. Blog comments are similar except they are attached to blogs and usually the discussion centers around the topic of the blog post