The Future of Communications
Yes, there are literally thousands of children right now ordering, asking questions, and generally talking to smart speakers or other devices in their bedrooms. Many parents hear their children asking random questions or even requesting songs. Many wonder how these digital devices are going to affect a child's behavior and education in the coming years. While we are unsure of many elements, we do know that the way they are going to communicate will be vastly different than how we communicate.
Children growing up during a pandemic have had to communicate with loved ones through a variety of mobile applications such as Skype or Zoom, and their general way of communication has already been vastly different than ours.
The world we live in is dominated by technology, for better and worse. It is evolving at an alarming pace and it is up to us to adapt with it. While we are unsure of what new forms of technology are evolving right now, we can gather a guess at how people are going to be interacting with it in the future.
We live in the age of instant sharing. We experience it in all walks of life, take a trip to your local restaurant and see how everyone is glued to their various mobile devices. In fact, you may even find yourself guilty of that habit yourself. The way in which we communicate has constantly evolved to moments in which we live in the moment to how we now share it all.
It is rare for people to be able to enjoy a concert without taking pictures or videos. Various apps and social networks allow us to share these memories in the instant in which we are enjoying them. Now the experience no longer belongs to just you but all of your family and friends as well as all of your contacts on social media. Additionally, it is possible to broadcast our experiences live through a number of streaming apps.
Through all of this shared information it allows the creation of a wide database of our vast experiences, that it is possible to know exactly what is happening at any part of the world in real time.
Interpersonal Communication Will Eventually fade. Many of us are more connected to family and friends than ever before and we have a number of tools that allow us to bridge connections that would not have been possible before. However, this technology is also making many of us shy away from traditional conversations and relationships.
Think about this for a moment, your daughter is going to be able to access all of the interactions and experiences you had throughout your life through on single platform. By visiting your profile on Instagram or Facebook, they will have a good understanding of who you were before you became a parent
This is going to be the generation that has the most personal information on their contacts than any generation before it. With this comes a new and different form of interaction. In some regards this may bring about greater respect or acceptance or people may simply know how to choose as friends based on their social footprint.
As individuals we are becoming all too aware that it is essential to protect our privacy and become more aware of who is watching us. It is important to remember that just about everything will live forever once it has been posted online.
In the near future is it going to be possible to talk to people from all over the world and have their languages understood by all? We can already translate a poster or menu by taking a photo of it....
While the barriers between languages is coming down, people are gaining more access to various cultures and traditions they never would have experienced before. However, how will this affect those types of traditions? Is it possible that through the years they will become global traditions? It is impossible to fully answer that question as of yet.
Once you add emojis into our daily communication...it is anyone's guess where things are going. Many people use these harmless little symbols to show off their feelings and emotions. While other people have begun to use them in various publications to reinforce a specific message. However, just how grammatically correct are emojis in our sentence structure and paragraphs? These are symbols many of us did not have to contend with during English class! With the rise of emojis, at some point there will more than likely be some type of rules placed on their general usage!
Conversing with robots is also going to become more prevalent as the years go by. Chatbots or conversation robots have come to an all time high. While they are still learning to communicate, it is only a matter of time before full conversations will be had.
There have been countless movies made and books written about the eventual rise of the machines. We are living in that time frame right now and we are seeing the machines become more intelligent and autonomous. At some point are the machines going to become too intelligent?
However, the truth of the matter is we have reached a phase that is unstoppable in the form of language that we will adapt to ensure software has the ability to understand it. This same software is going to try to mimic a response which is as close as possible to what an actual human would respond with.
However, one of the most important factors to look at is the direct competition that is seen from the media and social media. Throughout the last few years, there has been what is known as a transmedia relationship, which is where people will watch television while commenting about it on Twitter or other social media with relevant hashtags.
It would seem that everything has changed with streaming platforms such as Twitch. On this platform influencers and anonymous users to stream various forms of content while interacting with their many followers. One of the most shocking revelations in this scenario is the fact that very little production is required. With the transmedia relationship we are moving to a stage where some individuals will watch TV, while others are using a mobile phone to stream some form of content.
As technology continues to change and evolve it is up to us to continue to evolve and not lose who we are. Is communication going to change? In some regard it will, it already is. However, it is essential that we are not lost in the technology and are able to keep out humanity and individuality in the coming years.
What are your thoughts about technology and communication? Do you feel as though technology and social media are stripping us of who we are? Or is it possible that we are finding more ways to connect with individuals that never would have been possible before?
