Modern Day Technology Communication

Communication is the activity of conveying information. Communication requires a sender, a message, and an intended recipient, although the receiver need not be present or aware of the sender's intent to communicate at the time of communication; thus communication can occur across vast distances in time and space.

Communication first emerged hundreds of thousands years ago in the form of pictographs made in stone, and from there forth developed simultaneously with advances in technology. Advances in communication technology before the 20th century were generally slow and gradual, however with the turn of the century there was a huge boost in demand for new means of communication. The boost in demand was mainly connected to the wars that took place in the 20th century, countries needed new reliable and fast ways to contact one another, and from there technology has continued developing exponentially. Modern day technology would have been unimaginable a century ago, with various devices used to communicate to most places in the world. Today’s means of communication are constantly being upgraded and new technologies are being created, however communication devices vary by location. In 3rd world countries, or some very mountainous or wild lands and countries, deserts, secluded areas, etc; it is very difficult to find the technologies available in for example America or Japan. This is mainly because some countries do not have the funds, education, or resources to keep up with the wealthier countries communicational development. However, in America as well as other more developed countries, communication is now possible with the use of postal mail, telephones, and various internet resources.

Postal mail is the physical transition of a written piece of communication from one place to another. At first there would be people that would take mail and run to the informers desired destination to deliver it. Then instead of running, the deliverer would use a horse to speed up the delivery process. Next, the horses were replaced with automobiles, and that made the process even quicker. However, that limited mail transportation to land only. Modern day, mail is transferred by air plane to over seas, and locations inconvenient to reach by automobile. Local mail is still transported and delivered by various trucks, and cars. Postal mail communication is becoming more uncommon due to innovations in electronic mail, most of the mail a modern day household receives is not full of letters from friends and family but instead advertisements, and bills.

There are two types of modern day telephones, the landline and the mobile phone. Landline refers to a telephone line which travels through a solid medium, either metal wire or optical fibre, unlike the mobile cellular line where transmission is via radio waves. House phones, business phones, various companies and organizations usually use land lines for their telephones. There are two variations, one is a cordless landline phone that works in the proximity of the area, and the other a phone with a cord connected to the phone base. The mobile phone has been changing with new technologies and updates constantly. There is the simple cell phone, which can receive and send phone calls and text messages (written messages sent via phone). Alternately, in the last decade there has been a “smart phone” uprise that offers much more than the simple version. The smart phone has internet access, can take pictures, text messages, multiple line phone calls (when multiple people on different phones can all be connected and part of one conversation). All of the previously noted are huge advances in communication. People can now take a picture and instantly send it to someone or upload it to the internet, communicating where they are, what they’re doing, what they are experiencing. Text messages are a quick and easy alternative to postal mail and email (discussed later), where one can communicate with one person, or a group - without having to meet in person or call! Multiple phone lines have developed a great opportunity to connect people that are in different places and include them all in one telephone conversation. There are also a few smart phones that have developed a camera near the phone screen, that can allow people to see each other when they talk. The face to face video communication is an amazing new feature that benefits family and friends far apart, and even allows work meetings via phone - among other things. There are constantly new features and specs being tested and applied to better our telephone communication possibilities for the future. 

The internet is an extraordinary invention that can be accessed through computers and smart phones where internet connection is available via wifi, 3G, 4G, or through landline connection. As defined by wikipedia, the internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard internet protocol suite(TCP/IP) to serve billions of users worldwide. It is a network of networks that consists of millions of private, public, academic, business, and government networks, of local to global scope, that are linked by a broad array of electronic, wireless and optical networking technologies. The Internet carries a vast range of information resources and services, such as the inter-linked hypertext documents of the World Wide Web (WWW) and the infrastructure to support email. The internet contains social networks, emails and blogs and websites that all convey information in different ways. Social Networks are where individuals and organizations can create a profile and share thoughts, pictures and information with others, Facebook and Twitter are just two examples of popular modern day social networks. Blogs are where individuals can create their own web page and share their interests or anything they would through a blog website, tumblr.com and blogspot.com are two examples. Email is a virtual version of postal mail, much quicker and can be sent to multiple recipients at the same time. Emails are a quick way to communicate in writing with people with internet access all over the world. There are many different internet networks, in America some of the better known and used are Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari.

Mail, phones and internet are just the main ways we communicate today. Technology has continued to exponentially advance, and will continue to do so while simultaneously changing the way humans communicate.