Today's communication experience: How far we've come

» Today's communication experience: How far we've come

Alex wrote a very interesting post on sharing our lives in little pieces. He talks about how various new web technologies allow us to share pieces of our lives in different ways. Alex really captures the way I feel about social web tools such as blogging and Facebook- I feel that they give me a place to share a glimpse of my life that I might not have shared otherwise, and they let me do it easily. Blogging lets me share my thoughts through casual posts and Facebook lets me share my travels through casual photos.

This got me thinking about how far we've come with today's web technology and about how easy it is to communicate and share. It reminded me of my childhood memories of how my mom shared her new life in America with her parents who were back in Korea. My mom and dad were born and raised in Korea, and moved to the US after college in the 1960s. In those days, international travel was expensive and seldom done, international phone calls were expensive and seldom used, and pictures took days to get developed... and you had to wait until you finished the roll of film to get it developed! So, my mom communicated with her parents by writing letters and sending them through "air mail".

I remember my mom sitting in the spot in the living room where the sunlight shined through the windows, with a warm cup of coffee in her hands as she thought about what to write, and then handwriting a letter to her parents on special "air mail" paper, the kind with a red- and blue-striped border. I think she might have been restricted to writing everything on one page. Imagine the adventure of moving to a foreign country at a time when it was hard to communicate back home with your family and friends. Imagine wanting to share stories about your new life in America, your husband's career, your three kids' lives, and your adventures about living in a foreign country while learning a new culture and language. Imagine being restricted to a one-page, hand-written letter that takes one or two weeks to get delivered and waiting another one or two weeks to get a response.

Today, I probably travel to Asia more often than my mom wrote letters or called home. I can send an email or publish a blog post that can be read instantly by people around the world at the click of a button. I can snap a picture on my digital camera and share it easily and instantly. I can call my mom and dad from practically anywhere using my mobile phone. Let's take a moment to celebrate on how far we've come!

Now for the next phase. I am fortunate that my friends and loved ones live in places where they can get to a computer and get to the internet, though admittedly they do this with varying degrees of ease and regularity. But, I still know many people who have made the pilgrimmage to a new country but have friends and family in places where they can not connect to the web easily and regularly and in a cost-effective way.

Where are these people who can't get connected easily in a cost-effective way?
What can we do to help them get connected?
If we look ahead a few years, how will they be connected with the rest of the world?

Tags: communication experience, sharing, connected, web technology, air mail, blogging, Facebook, HP

Please feel free to leave a URL in your comments.

Posted by Susie Wee on Wednesday, June 27, 2007 5:21 PM

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Comments for Today's communication experience: How far we've come

Re: Today's communication experience: How fa

I don't have answers to questions. But this reminds the changes happened on myself and reminds me to ask myself: for how many years you have not written a handwriting letter?

Communication methods have changed so dramatic but natural. From handwriting letters to phones to today real time media transmissions, we are exploring the different "functions" of ourselves:

handwriting relies on reading;

telephone relies on hearing;

real time media relies on seeing ;

From reading to hearing to seeing, the ways to convey the messages seem to become easier and more direct, with the help of technology. So what is going to happen tomorrow? Anything else we can exploit? Shall we be planted with a communication chip in the brain that can automatically communicate with the cell without bothering our eyes after it receives messsage from other chips?

Posted by sqchen on 6/29/2007 11:16 PM
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Re: Today's communication experience: How fa

sqchen: Good point that communication methods have changed dramatically, but naturally. It's interesting how the technology tools are really just letting us do more natural human things, such as communicating and learning, but doing them in ways that were impossible before, such as communicating with people on the other side of the world and learning from information that is provided by someone on the other side of the world.

In terms of other senses, we still have touch/feeling and smell to come. In terms of the senses you mentioned, there is still an opportunity to doing them better, e.g., more immersive visual and audio experiences.

Your final point about automatic communication with communication chips is quite thought-provoking. It makes me wonder, if we automatically communicate the information through a chip, we are bypassing the human senses. If we bypass the human senses, are we communicating? Hmmmm....!!! (I think you just instigated a future blog post.)

Posted by susie.wee on 6/30/2007 1:47 PM
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Re: Today's communication experience: How fa

Susie, very interesting thought on your new post. I think human senses are just trans-receivers, though. The communication, whether information or experience, still has to go through the brain for centralized processing.

In my last comment, by implantation when everyone is born (like the immunization), maybe it can enable everyone to be connected wherever she/he is, as long as the infrastructure is there. She can turn off the chip when she wants privacy or sleeps while the infrastructure can buffer for her. This way it will be a global communication world where everyone is on board.

You are right that for existing communication methods, we still have opportunity to get them better. Developing new/better methods and improving existing ones are two parallel directions. This is similar to the current status of Portable Communication. I will put some of my comments in your old post Panel on "The Future of Portable Communication".

Posted by sqchen on 7/3/2007 2:41 PM
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Re: Today's communication experience: How fa

sqchen: I now understand your perspective about the senses just being sensors that interact with the brain. In your comment, I see that you have the concept of a "buffer" to hold your thoughts while you want privacy or sleep. I think the buffer concept allows deep thought to occur, which was my concern about bypassing the senses. Basically, if the buffer is there to hold the communicated message and give you time to think about, process, and internalize the message, then I think the deeper thinking and understanding can occur. However, there is still nuance in how a person chooses to express themselves, including the words they pick and the body language they use. Would this still be conveyed or would it be lost?

I bet the buffering idea came from you research! Thanks for the conversation!

Posted by susie.wee on 7/9/2007 2:18 PM
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