How Do You Communicate?

Unless you live on a remote island, you’ve probably noticed the way we communicate has changed over the past few decades.  Remember in the early 90’s when everyone had a pager? Yeah, it was cool to page someone, but you still had to wait for that person to find a payphone to return your call. Or how about in the 1980’s when we only had home phones. If you were trying to connect with someone who wasn’t home you were just out of luck. You had to wait for them to get home to answer the phone.  Its kind of funny to think about the simple times of communications, compared to our current world of instant communications.

The continued advancement of technology has allowed us the luxury of staying in touch 24 hours a day. Whether you’re prone to chatting on your cell phone, texting and/or communicating on your favorite social media network, there’s no excuse for staying out of touch (that is unless you’re trying to dodge someone…we’ve all been there before…don’t judge). With cell phones, tablets and computers, we now have the capability to log on just about anywhere and communicate with our friends and families. So, which forms of media tools do you use to communicate the most? I typically use text messaging, social media sites and blogs to fill people in on what’s going on with me, and to find out what’s going on with them.

Tex messaging is probably the easiest and quickest way to communicate with our friends, family and sometimes even your colleagues. Texting gives us the luxury of having a conversation with one person or several at the same time. It’s instant communication without ever seeing the person on the receiving end of the conversation. I know, I know….I’ve  heard all the negative opinions on texting, and some I even agree with, but if you’re smart and know the limitations of texting it can be a great tool (don’t text and drive). Knowing when a phone call is better than a text message is key to not getting caught up in a world of abbreviated words. Remember, text messaging cannot take the place of your social skills. Here’s a great article on why text messaging is a good way to communicate http://www.mosio.com/mobileanswers/5-reasons-text-messaging-is-a-better-way-to-communicate-with-users-than-anything-youre-using-now/

I remember several years ago when everyone was leaving Myspace in mass numbers to join Facebook.  I think I may have been one of the last people to ditch Myspace to jump on the Facebook bandwagon. In fact, I had some silly theory that I could only participate on one social media site at a time. I can laugh about that now as I’m now on a few different social media sites at a time. I use Facebook to mostly stay in touch with friends and families.  It’s a great tool to reconnect with people your past. I would say I use this site more for personal networking rather than professional networking. Alicia Eler perfectly breaks down why we use Facebook in this article http://readwrite.com/2012/01/16/study_why_do_people_use_facebook

So, the other day I came across a very cute blog. While working on a group discussion with my classmates at Southern New Hampshire University, my classmate introduced us to her blog http://tiffanybluegirlatheart.com/. I think this is the cutest blog I’ve ever seen!  The writer lets us in on her passion…Tiffany and Company. A blog is an informal website or web page that is regularly updated with information. For this particular page, my classmate updates us on the latest Tiffany and Company news, but there are all kinds of blogs out there.  I like browsing through the world of blogs to find out what’s going on with my colleagues in particular, to stay on top of the trends in the field of communications.

No matter how you choose to communicate, just remember it’s a tool used to express yourself. Our communication styles often need to adapt with the change of technology, but it’s also smart to remember the basic fundamentals of communicating and that starts with the face-to-face conversation.