Advancements in technology have changed many aspects of our lives, and arguably none more so than with communications.
Telephone Communications:
Personally, I hate typing out messages using those tiny onscreen keyboards. My kids and adult grandkids will send me a text message and, by the time I’ve managed to fumble out half a response, they’ve sent me two or three more. How can they be that fast?
Some messages they send to me require a detailed response and under those circumstances, I’ll ring them… all the time wondering why they didn’t ring me in the first place rather than texting.
I’ll often sit next to my lovely wife in our respective recliners while she’s madly typing away on her iPhone for hours, and when I ask her what she is doing, she replies that she is “chatting” with our daughter. What goes through my mind on those occasions is… surely it would be a lot easier to just chat via a telephone call. It’s a thought that I have never verbalized, however. I am not that brave.
Online Communications:
Then there are all the various messaging apps that allow us to communicate in real time, regardless of location.
Social Media: Anyone who is a regular reader of my articles is well aware that I am definitely not a fan of Social Media. However, there is little doubt that Social Media has provided a terrific medium for families and friends to share stories and photos.
Who remembers postcards? It was once a tradition when away on holiday (vacation) to send postcards to close family via snail mail. The postcards would include a photo of the holiday destination on the front with a short handwritten message on the back… often something like “Having a great time, wish you were here“. Social Media provides a far superior medium for sharing these occasions.
I can remember the days when “slideshow” meant looking at photo slides projected onto a white screen or wall. If Social Media has provided one blessing, it is that we no longer have to sit through Uncle Harry’s boring projected slideshow of his latest holiday with Aunty Betty.
Email: is a medium that we now take for granted and one that is not often mentioned when discussing major technological advances. However, the humble email has completely changed the way in which we communicate. The ability to share information, documents, etc., almost instantaneously represents a huge leap forward over snail mail.
So much so that our postal service in Australia is struggling financially due to the huge decline in letter sending.
I haven’t even touched on satellite technology which has not only impacted hugely on communications but across many fields.
I’m sure I will have missed something here. If you can come up with another modern means of communication that I’ve failed to mention, please feel free to let us know via the comments.
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Jim, I’m also slow when I’m typing a message on my Android phone’s KB but luckily the phone also has the option of entering text by dictation instead — easily done, and easily corrected on the KB before sending.
Handy Andy.
I don’t trust ANYTHInG my Spellchecker comes up with. Even after I have corrected something to my satisfaction, after I publish what I want, I have to look at it again because it tries to override my corrections.
Hey Guys,
When it comes to Australian English and its colloquialisms the iPhone’s spellchecker is a nightmare. I often have to retype a word or term multiple times before it is finally accepted.
Yes Jim, I too have problems using the cell. Need to put on my reading glasses (for those tiny keys), and the special pen to touch the keys (as my fingers hit several keys at once). Typing on PC’s is straight and simple. Sit in a comfortable chair and let the fingers pound away (glasses not required). I prefer using the landline to speak to family and friends.
What I find odd, there were times I wanted to see the person on the other end while speaking, but do not know of anyone who uses that feature.
Technology can offer all of us something unique when it comes to communicating, Mindblower!
I can relate to all of this.
My son was absolutely shocked when a family friend actually called/telephoned to invite us to their house for dinner. He was like “why didn’t he send a WhatsApp message instead”.
Communicating via “status updates” annoys me greatly. I often miss big announcements because information is shared via WhatsApp status and I don’t often remember to go to that page to see what my contacts have posted. And it all disappears after 24 hours.
Email is actually losing its popularity. I noticed recently that I haven’t been regularly adding new messages from my children to their respective folders in my email inbox. Email is no longer their first choice. Even at work there has been a shift to other communication apps. I often complain that when I’m searching for something in a previous discussion, I don’t know if to search in email, WhatsApp or Slack.
Finally, WhatsApp video calls!! My little granddaughter is disappointed if the phone rings and she can’t see the face of the person who called. That’s the era she was born into. No plain WhatsApp voice call, no ordinary cellphone call. And her parents don’t even have a landline phone either. None of my children have landlines in their houses, and when my own landline rings I can nearly always guess exactly who is calling).
Hey Tony.
“Email is actually losing its popularity”
An excellent observation. About the only email I receive these days is from businesses.