Online Dating

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Developments in Communication

To begin, I am going to look at how communication has developed over the many years. I aim to gain understanding as to why each new form of communication that has been introduced has defeated the methods that existed before, and how social media has defeated them all.

Here's an infographic displaying the different forms of communication on a timeline:

This infographic is focused on Crowdsourcing, but we'll come to that in another post.

To begin - letters, a form of communication that is still very much in use today, although their use has decreased significantly. 

What the Internet brings is instant communication, something that letters have never been able to provide, nor will they ever.  Sending a letter always feels more personal for the receiver, due to the effort and cost involved in sending one.  But for a high level of convenience, sending a letter is not an option.

The telephone - defeated letters due to its instant communication factor. 

When using a telephone, users could talk to each other in real-time.  When asking a question, they'd recieve an instant response.  It was like having a conversation with somebody face-to-face, except you couldn't see them and you didn't have to leave your home.

So if the telephone allows for instant communication, why has it also been defeated by the social media?

When speaking to someone on the telephone, you can only hear their voice.  It doesn't allow for much expression, other than through tone of voice.  Social-networking sites allow users to transmit almost anything to the reciever, whether it be a document, a funny video, an inspiring picture - the list goes on!

Also, there is the wonderful development of Skype.  It's just like being on the telephone, except you can see the person too.  And it's free!

Telesales was very common before the 1990s.  It is still in use today, but the rise of the Internet, and particularly, social media, has meant that organisations can target potential customers in a wider area more efficiently.

Telephones are still highly used today, particularly amongst older generations who don't feel the need to bother with the Internet and are sticking to the methods of communication that they're used to.

E-mail next.  E-mail was invented to replace the letter with a more instant older brother.  It hasn't quite replaced the letter, but has certainly stolen the majority of its users.

In my opinion, e-mails are not as private as letters.  You can never trust the Internet - anyone could be recieving the information that users send out.  But they are still far more efficient than letters.

E-mail isn't instant, as it all depends on when the reciever is using their computer.  Although, these days, the chances of that being the case are far higher.

E-mail defeated the telephone as the concept is almost the same, just better.  After all, you can't telephone someone if they're not in.  With the telephone, you'd have to call back later, whereas an e-mail will remain in the receiver's inbox until they log on.

E-mail also allows users to send the same message to multiple people quickly and easily, without having to reconstruct the same message and send it individually.

This is an aspect that makes social media so popular, which is the last communication strategy I am going to discuss in this post.

So far, social media has defeated all other forms of communication in terms of efficiency.  Users can talk publicly, privately, quickly, send photos, videos, web links, etc.  They also have everyone that would desire to contact in one space, if they have an account on the same social-network. 

In terms of safety, I would never trust social media. 

But that's the same with any online service, yet I can't see an offline service defeating social media and winning the award of most efficient method of communication any time soon.

References

Infographic from webpage
ESPOSTI, C., 2011. Why Crowdsourcing? Why Now? [online]. Los Angeles: Crowdsourcing LLC.  Available from: http://www.crowdsourcing.org/editorial/why-crowdsourcing-why-now/5570 [Accessed on 24 February 2012]

Welcome

Welcome to Virtual Social Life, the blog that analyses and highlights the differences between the way we communicate with people online and offline.

I am a 1st year Media student at Robert Gordon University, currently learning about Digital Media Platforms and Practices.  I decided to start a blog dedicated to the analysis of communication, as it is a subject that is rapidly transforming due to the rise of social media.

This blog investigates how and why people of different age groups and backgrounds are increasingly using the Internet as a method of communication.  It also questions who people are communicating with online. Does anyone really know?