Monday, September 21, 2009

Help me with my schoolwork?

I need to write a short essay for a class I'm taking regarding how technology has changed the way people communicate in the last decade. Insanely broad, eh? Anyway, I'm relatively strong on modern technology, but 10 years ago in 1999, all I had was school email. That was my crazy technology. So I'm trying to make a list of the different technologies that are used for communication that have made it big in the last ten years. Would anyone like to add to the list?
  • Cell phones
  • Text messaging
  • Instant messaging
  • YouTube
  • Email
  • MySpace
  • Facebook
  • Tweet
  • MMORPG
  • Pagers
  • Skype
  • Friendster
  • Second Life

Also, I am totally going to reference this in my essay:

10 comments:

fone home said...

I've seen this before, isn't it hilarious? Love it!

Love,

fone home aka:"Eaten alive in Or. and not in the good way"

Kent McManigal said...

Blog comments. That is how I normally communicate with you.

I have also heard of something called "speech", which I suppose is new. Maybe it is just an unsubstantiated rumor.

Anonymous said...

I think that should be Twitter instead of Tweet.

I would also add to your list internet bulletin boards/forums.

Kirsten

Jac said...

Definitely forums... Ebay/Craigslist/Paypal/etc. (as far as the market is concerned).

--Jac

Anonymous said...

re: forums

I'd be more specific. Bulletin boards in general have been around for a while, and things use Usenet had their heyday in the 80's and 90's. For the last 10 years, it's definitely the Web 2.0 stuff like blogs and Craigslist that have made a huge difference.

-- Brasidas

fone home said...

World of Warcraft and Everquest too maybe? People get addicted to those games...

Ty said...

We use a web tool called Oovoo. It is similar to Skype.

Also, I think pagers are older than 10 years and have died out more than made it big in the last 10 years.

Ty said...

Oh yeah. Bluetooth technology might deserve a mention since it allows you to communicate without having the wireless device in your hand.

Mara said...

I'd add in communicating real time with other players while jointly logged into x-box (uses a headset, so you can actually talk while playing a game together). I haven't tried it on Wii or PS3, but I'd assume they have similar capabilities.

I'd also think about removing pagers from the list, as it seems that in the past decade they've been largely replaced by messaging capabilities of smart phones.

Also:
- Blogs (in addition to the comments)
- Would Craigslist count as a form of communication?

Mara said...

Shoot. I should have read the other comments more closely so that I wouldn't have mentioned the same things as Brasidas.

Apologies for not paying attention more closely.