Every day, in so many possible ways, we can reach out and talk to just about anyone we want. For some of us, it is a face-to-face encounter; it can be a telephone conversation; maybe it is a voice mail message or text message or an instant message; it might even be an email. With all of these modes of communication, what could be the problem—communication overload. Now, there is yet one more to consider; in fact, Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook CEO) just announced a new form of email.
According to Richard Harper in “Facebook’s email gives us a new way to chat—but are we reaching overload” in The Observer, this new email system will not interfere with free services such as Gmail or Hotmail; it is going to offer something totally different. This system will allow us to be constantly aware of the communication from others. In some cases, this could be a wonderful thing, but I can certainly think of times when I would not appreciate such access. More concerning than the immediacy of access, perhaps is the possibly of yet another mode of communication to be misused. Each of the different technologies provide us with a different way to reach others. The question will remain—are we using the most appropriate method for the message we have to relay. And now, we have another choice.
Will we use this new technology to create a new version of a Dear John letter?
Lisa, although I enjoy the technology that I use, I agree sometimes 'less is more.' Through this class I have found a lot of programs and applications that I plan to continue to use (Flickr, Podcast) but my brain can only hold so much.
ReplyDeleteI truly believe that this is the reason that our children have a different mindset than what we had in our youth. They are given such a huge variety (all the time) that they don't have time to commit and have come to EXPECT something newer than the last!