Lecture Week 1 - My First Ever Blog...

This is my first ever blog! I'm writing this blog for a class I'm taking at uni called New Communication Technologies.

Our first lecture was about how communication has developed throughout history. The original communication technologies were basic things such as speech (verbal communication) and rock art (graphic communication). These have progressed though to the new communication technologies we have today including mobile phones and computers. We are now able to carry something in our pocket that allows us to make phone calls, send text, surf the net, video call, email, watch videos, play music, play games etc!

Another interesting point covered in the lecture was whether or not all these increased channels of communication is actually a good thing. Nowadays, if you don't want to see someone you can call them, if you don't want to call them you can email them, if you don't want to email them you can send them a text! It is taking all the face to face communication away from our lives and replacing it with emails, text messages and instant messaging. At the same time, these new communication technologies also make maintaining friendships and keeping in touch so much easier & affordable than it has been in the past.

It would be interesting to see if these changes in communication have resulted in people having better or worse relationships. There are so many more channels of communication open to us that keeping in touch with people is easier, but more and more of our communication is taking place over the phone, via text & instant messaging at the expense of face to face communication.

This issue was in the news recently with an Archbishop in England warning that social networking sites such as Facebook were resulting in teenagers developing 'transient' relationships rather than meaningful ones, which places them at greater risk of social isolation and therefore, suicide. Click here to see the full article.