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Communication technologies are, naturally, ways in which technology is utilized for communication. These technologies range from analogue to binary (or digital), from old to new. Old technologies include carrier pigeons or smoke signals, or, perhaps the first ever form of communication, hand gestures. These are considered old technologies because they are ‘analogue’ which means they have no outer source of power. New technologies are digital, using electricity or telecommunications to communicate, such as mobile phones and computers.
As technology is constantly being developed and improved, forms of communication are rapidly being replaced. Not very long ago the major forms of communication included landline telephones, and handwritten letters. These are already being phased out as forms of communication. Some households don’t have a landline, utilising instead just mobile phones. The idea, especially for Generation Y, of writing letters seems archaic, e-mails providing a faster way of communication, with the same content.
Thanks to this world-wide connectivity there is also a provided vantage point for hackers, who utilise the internet with malicious intents. Although not all hackers are malicious; recently there has been an outbreak of Hacktivism, as cult-like activist group that hack into government and industry computers to release information that they believe is a form of free speech. This in some cases has actually proved beneficial.
The internet is a refuge to most of the younger generations, and even some of the older, as it provides information instantly that otherwise would take effort not willingly exerted. For example, Wikipedia – though not always trustworthy – provides vast amounts of information that would normally require the use of an encyclopaedia (which most people don’t own). However, as Thurlow and Mckay say, “The attraction of the internet for most people is not access to information but access to social environments” (2003). While informative use of the internet is commonplace, people are more likely to use it recreationally and socially; as a form of communication.
Communication technologies bring the world closer together.
Thurlow, C & McKay, S 2003, ‘Profiling "New" Communication Technologies In Adolescence’ Journal of Language and Social Psychology, vol. 22, no.1, pp. 94–103, viewed July 29,
<http://jls.sagepub.com.libraryproxy.griffith.edu.au/content/22/1/94.full.pdf+html>
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