Communication Compass (Assignment One)

Digital Communication is any electronic exchanging of information.


Four advantages of digital communication would include:

- If you have family/friends who do not live near you, you are able to connect with them in ways that don't involve travel.

- For people with employment that involves a lot of conference meetings, and things that involve expensive travelling, it is possible to use digital communication to avoid this.

- With digital communication it is possible to receive news from all over the world about important causes or events that have taken place.

- It is simpler to complete projects with your group members, with programs like Google Drive and even just Facebook messenger.


Four disadvantages of digital communication could be:

- The risk of releasing your personal information into the hands of a stranger

- Privacy becomes a huge issue when it is possible for anyone to view anything you do at any time. With the invention of camera phones, everyone has the ability to capture moments in an instant to share with anyone.

- Lack of emotion in conversation. You could mean one thing, but it could come across to the receiver in a completely different way.

- Distracts us from what is most important, like spending time with family and friends.


The three most popular forms of digital communication today are:
- Texting, or using cellular devices because it is convenient for everyone involved. You can talk anywhere, at anytime, all you have to do it click a few buttons.

- Social Media and other online connection sites are another very popular form of digital communication used today. People prefer internet related communication because you can share photos, videos, and ideas instantly through the web, without the stress of real social interaction.

- A third common form of digital communication that is used quite frequently would be online video calls such as FaceTime and Skype. This is most likely used more often by people who want to reach their family or friends quickly over long distances. As well, many people use these programs when preforming conference calls, etc.


There are many forms of digital communication that often remain popular for a while, but after enough time passes, become irrelevant due to new types of communication. Some forms I believe will become irrelevant over time, or less frequently used would include:
- For me, I believe Facebook will become a form of digital communication that will eventually die down. I know for a fact, the amount of people who have an account on Facebook today, and the amount of people who use it, are two completely different numbers. There is so many new ways to communicate being discovered that websites like Facebook are no longer as huge a deal as they use to be.

- Texting eventually, as more efficient ways of communication are developed will become a thing of the past in my opinion, because even today, texting is becoming less and less of a fad. Right now, even with things like iMessage, texting is being used sparsely, so in the future, when there is going to be even more technology created, texting will slowly disappear.

- Finally, E-mail is just one more thing that eventually will become irrelevant over time. It is rarely used today, so as time progresses, it will fade away just like many other things already have.


Five locations/scenarios I believe you should not communicate digitally would include:

- In a workplace that involves critical social interaction, such as a therapy office, teaching environment, etc. I believe these areas are especially important to avoid digital communication in because it is more convenient to learn or understand things when someone is physically there to speak/teach you. If you have any problems with understanding it is easier to explain yourself clearly in physical form than digital form.

- During a situation where someone's life is at risk, and help is needed, it is especially necessary for their to be physical attendance for the injured. It is almost impossible for someone to receive assistance over digital communication, for a fatal injury.

- At a funeral, it is completely disrespectful to use your technology during services like such, where you should be giving your full attention and respect to the people involved.

- While you are driving it is actually against the law to use digital communication. You will be distracted by your technology when you really should be focusing on the task at hand to avoid accidents.

- When spending time with family or friends. It would be inappropriate for you to pay all of your attention to digital communication rather than communicating socially.


In my opinion, two of the most dangerous forms of digital communication are:

- Online chat sites such as Omegle, etc, where you speak to strangers through video chat. Especially for younger people who don't really understand the dangers behind allowing a stranger to know personal information. It is possible to accidentally give out private details about yourself that could harm you in several ways.

- Most social networking sites can be quite harmful to a person's well-being. In situations that involve cyber bullying, and things like that, a person could be driven to the edge from constant interrogation, and embarrassment.


I think eventually the children of the future will discover their own healthy balances with digital communication. Even today, the severity of it all is clear to us, and I believe that over time as children will begin to learn more and more about technology, they will start balancing technology with work and necessity. They will find their own ways to handle technology and be taught not to depend completely on it.


If someone passes away or is too sick to use any digital communication I believe the accounts or pages should either be taken down, or given to a close family member to take care of, to save photos or memories for the family, and so on. It should be left to the family or closest thing to family that the person who passed has. I don't think it should just be taken down, but I do think if that happens, then all of their memories and such should be able to be saved or downloaded for the family to keep.