The Ever-changing Means of Communication

Communication is a key aspect of every individual’s daily life. From face-to-face conversations and video calls to emails and text messages, people have become accustomed to finding quicker and more efficient ways to communicate with each other. Without communication, information can never be shared. As I browsed the innovation library on EDUCAUSE, I came across a white paper that addresses the evolution of communication and social networking. The article addresses the key factor of technology that has changed the way we communicate, and the way we think and talk about communication. The new technologies that have essentially made the cost of communication across the globe free, have also changed the way we work and function. People no longer need to be in the same office, or even in the same country, to work collaboratively. 

If you think about the number of ways you communicate with others, you’ll likely surpass 5 means of communication a day. Social media has massively taken over “casual” communication, from Twitter posts that serve as little news and conversation starters to Instagrams posts and direct messages, to conversational text messages, to work emails that we have become accustomed to reading and answering as they arrive, and so on. Additionally, the expectations of response time vary widely depending on the mean of communication. To get a response in the form of a letter, you are likely expecting at least a two-day period, while text messages are mostly expected within minutes. 

This is where the technology of virtual worlds may come in with additional opportunities in the world of communication. Virtual reality provides that added capability of physical interaction, where you can see a full picture of how communication was meant to be: a voice or text, with some sort of a body attached to it. Such capability increases the feeling of presence and an emotional and attentive connection, that may otherwise lack in other environments (EDUCAUSE, 2007). While not fully comparable to face-to-face communications, these virtual technologies certainly add a dimension of interactions that is not available in other means of communication like text messages and emails. 



One of the major forces that impact the ever-changing trends of communication is privacy. All the new
technologies and trends that are constantly bringing forth new means of communication, certainly come with a lessened layer of privacy. Yes, open communication has become a key factor in many environments and workplaces. However, with every new technology that enables a new communication trend, we somehow experience poorer privacy. Blog posts, youtube videos, podcasts, and hundreds of other platforms have enabled this idea of openly communicating how you feel and what your opinion is about everything happening around us. Something that may seem personal to you, may seem as perfectly appropriate to share with the world, without your direct permission. And unfortunately, there are no limits as to how far these means of communication may go to further lessen the sense of privacy. 

Another force that impacts the effectiveness of newer communication is the idea of being understood. As previously mentioned, online communication lacks one of the unique factors of face-to-face conversations - emotional awareness. The lack of nuances in instant messages and Twitter posts makes this type of interaction extremely difficult to decode (EDUCAUSE, 2007). Smiley faces and other emojis have been developed to add that context, but let’s be real - how many times have we incorrectly used an emoji to hide our true feelings/opinions within a text or post? Such lack of context is only worsening as new means of communication are introduced. 

Reference:

EDUCAUSE. (2007, May 23). Social Networking, the “Third Place,” and the Evolution of              Communication. Retrieved August 25, 2022, from https://library.educause.edu/resources/2007/5/social-networking-the-third-place-and-the-evolution-of-communication
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