Communication Online

Communication online is gradually becoming more important in the world we live in today, with the variety of ways you can communicate with each other constantly increasing. In this blog entry I will talk about the ways of communicating online, advantages and disadvantages of the different ways and also my personal experience of using the different online communication tools.

Email 

Email or Electronic Mail allows you to send a piece of text, photo, document, video file etc from one computer to another. Since it was founded in 1971 it use has grown exponentially as the internet has developed. Using email is simple, a message is sent to an individual post box on a mail server where it waits until an email client picks it up.

What is an email client?

An email client is a program run by a user to send and receive email. It retrieves all email for its user from the mail server to which it is connected. It sends all mail from its user to the same mail serve, for distribution to other users of email on other servers. The server therefore manages the communication of mail between internet domains (such as hotmail.com and yahoo.com).

With the technological advances now a day’s email can now be used on smart phones for example: iPhone. An email system essentially allows you to:

See a list of messages in your mailbox, showing the senders name, the subject of the message, and the date and time it was sent.

Select individual messages to view

Compose messages with a subject heading and textual content, and sent them to any other email address.

Add attachments to mails and save attachments from mails

The message is usually composed in an editing window or frame within the mail client. This used to be entirely text-based but can now also be HTML-based. In modern computers this message can be cut and pasted from another application.

Advantages of Email:

Emails are easy to use

Emails are fast, they are delivered at once around the world. Email is the quickest form of written communication in the world.

The language used in emails is simple and informal.

Emails do not use paper!!

Disadvantages of Email:

Emails may carry viruses; these are small programs that harm your computer system.

Many people send unwanted emails to others, these emails are known as ‘spam mails’

You mailbox can get flooded if you don’t regularly clear out your inbox.

My Personal Experience:

I, as a student use emails a lot! The majority of the time I use them for school work, to send work I have done at school home or vice-versa. Emails allow me to contact teachers if I find work hard or am having trouble with it. Email also allows me to contact relatives who live abroad; for example my uncle lives in Spain and without emails I would never be able to contact him. Emails are vitally important for me in the way I work both at school and at home.

Social Media

Social Media sites such as Facebook, Twitter and MySpace are now used worldwide for communication and are an integral part of today’s society. Social Networking allows people do a variety of things such as: Favourite, Like, Follow, Re-Tweet, Tweet, Update their Status and the list goes on! The average Facebook user spends 1.2 days a month on the sight.

Facebook

Facebook is by far the most dominant social networking sight today with 750 million users currently using the site. Facebook was founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg and exploded onto the social networking scene and laid down the guidelines for social networking sites following it.  Facebook allows users to create a profile, where they can share information about themselves. After making your profile you can then add friends; this allows you to look at their profile page, you can also post on their ‘wall’.

Social Media Revolution 2012

Advantages

Facebook is free and its one of the best medium for communication.

With Facebook you can connect to any type of people from anywhere in the world.

Facebook is a great way of finding old friends that you may have lost contact with.

Facebook allows you to openly share your feelings and views.

Facebook allows you to receive news on celebrities and other news you may be interested in

Disadvantages

Fake Profiles are easy to make so there could be someone pretending to be you.

Facebook sometimes bring about bad results to students with them spending a lot of their time on the site.

FACEBOOK IS ADDICTIVE! Can lead to the death of a social life.

My Personal Experiences:

I have been on Facebook for about 4 years now, it allows me to talk and communicate with friends which I love. It also allows people to make groups and events; this is useful if organising a party where you can have all the information in one place. I do find Facebook incredible addictive however and I would be the first one to admit that I spend way too much time on the site.

Twitter

Twitter is the second largest social networking behind Facebook. Twitter has around a third of the users than Facebook does. Twitter allows you to ‘tweet’ which involved contacting other people with Twitter with the use of the ‘@’ symbol for example @SimonMatthewsBlog. Other ‘tweeters’ can follow you, re-tweet you or favourite your tweets.

Advantages:

Twitter is easy to join: takes less than a minute to create an account with Twitter and start ‘tweeting’

Twitter is easy to use: twitter limits its updates to 140 characters, so there’s no need to launch into long-winded prose or to over-explain your thoughts.

Twitter can be anonymous: unlike Facebook, which insists that you can use your ‘real name’ whereas Twitter allows you to choose any available user name you’d like

Disadvantages

Impersonal Relationships: it is not uncommon to hear someone boast about how many followers they have on Twitter.

Internet Predators: As with any social platforms provided through an online service, subscribers can fall prey to predators

Time Consumption: Twitter can consumer your time. Work, real social interactions and rest can all suffer if you are always tweeting.

Personal Experience:

I have recently created a Twitter account and I find it extremely entertaining. Unlike Facebook and other social networking sites there is always something going on, it also allows me to receive news from celebrities that I follow.

MySpace

MySpace is a social networking service owned by Specific Media LLC and pop star Justin Timberlake. MySpace launched in August 2003 and is headquartered in Beverley Hills, California. MySpace has many features such as: Bulletins, Groups, MySpace IM (Instant Messenger), MySpace TV and MySpace News.

Advantages:

Easy Access

Easy profile customization

Includes Blogging

International

User Friendly

Disadvantages:

Many fake identified users

Privacy

Safety

Security

Stalkers

Personal Experience:

I do not actually have a MySpace account but I have heard that it is a great way to communicate and express your views; it is also very closely knit with the Pop Music culture of today.

Forums 

An Internet Forum, or Message Board, is an online discussion site where people can hold conversations in the form of posted messages. They differ from other sites such as chat rooms in that messages are at least temporarily archived. Also depending on the access level of a user or the forum set-up a posted message might need to be approved by a moderator before it becomes visible.

Advantages:

You can start up a topic and discuss it with other people in the forum

You can post up different types of media

A moderator can edit and reply to other peoples posts to control the forums

Disadvantages:

Anyone can spam on the forums if not controlled by a moderator

Disagreements may occur and cause cyber fights.

Personal Experience:

I personally have used forums mostly for educational purposes. If you post a question on a sight such as wiki answers then you can receive feedback from professionals or experts in the field that you are asking the question about.

SMS – Smart phones 

One of the most unexpected ‘killer applications’ of the digital age has been the Short Messaging Service (SMS) or text messaging to the less technologically experienced people. SMS was originally devised to utilise the slack times in mobile phones transmissions to send short bursts of textual data; it has become the chosen means of communication for many people over the use of phone calls. SMS has become so popular with the public that a Short Messaging Language has been introduced with abbreviations and informal phonics such as BRB meaning Be Right Back and LOL which translates to Laugh Out Loud.

Advantages:

Private between you and the recipient

Quick and easy to do

Can get very quick replies

Disadvantages

Must have a mobile phone and phone signal

  Some people may prefer to talk in person

  Can make people feel isolated

Personal Experience

I can honestly say I am a ‘serial texter’ I all way have my phone on me and I am always texting, I find it so quick and easy to do; and with people my age in today’s age you usually get an instant reply. 

Blogs

Blogs or weblogs are a specialised form of website created for the purpose of keeping an online journal. Early on they replaced the personal home pages that any individuals kept to amuse and inform friends and family, or other individuals with similar interests. In order to keep blogs up to date and interesting, in a way that personal home pages rarely were, systems have evolved to facilitate easy posting of material. This usually involves a blog editor interfaced to a database system that:

Manages the posts

Manages links to other articles and websites

Archives old material

Allows for comments to be made on posts

Famous blogs such as the Huffington Post has received up to 26 million Unique Visitors in 1 month! (http://www.huffingtonpost.com)

Advantages

Blogging is really easy

Blogs can be set up quickly

Blogs are search engine friendly

Disadvantages

Need to keep it constantly updated otherwise you lose potential readers

Easy to start, hard to maintain.

Personal Experience

I am using www.blogger.com to set up and use my blog. I find having a blog very rewarding as you can seeing how many page views you have received and if you have any comments, although it does take a lot of maintenance it is worth it when you post each blog post.

Instant Messaging/ Chat 

Chat covers a range of scenarios across a range of different networking including:

Internet relay chat (IRC) – an open protocol no controlled by any one provider

Web-based  chat offered by ISPs (e.g. BT of Freeserve)

Website based chat offered by anyone with a site.

Chat rooms using SMS on mobile phones.

Instant Messaging also allows you to interact with other users in real time. It is usually more private than chat rooms, allowing a group of people to converse in real time without being snooped on by anyone they don’t specifically allow into the conversation. IM services allow two or more participants to communicate at the same time. 

Advantages:

Its free conversation can be held with another person without running up a large bill.

Messages are sent in real-time

Files and pictures can be sent in instant messaging conversations.

Disadvantages:

Messages can be intercepted

Virus via file transfers is possible

Can be distracting and time consuming

Personal Experience:

I used to use sites like MSN a lot more than I do now, I found them easy and fun to use; you can also use a webcam whilst you talk to friends which makes it more like a real conversation.

Podcast Logo 

Podcasts 

A podcast is a type of digital media consisting of an episodic series of audio video subscribed to and downloaded through the web.

According to the Apple iTunes Store in the UK the Top 5 most downloaded podcasts are

1. Friday Night Comedy from BBC Radio 4
2. Comedy of the Week from BBC Radio 4
3. Best of Chris Moyles from BBC Radio 1
4. Desert Island Discs with Kirsty Young from BBC Radio 4
5. The Infinite Monkey Cage from BBC Radio 4

Advantages:

Available anytime/ anywhere

Easy to create

New podcasts and auto-downloaded

Disadvantages:

Entire file is downloaded

Need sufficient space to download podcast

No interactivity.

Online Services

Communication Online

The world revolves around the Internet now more than it ever has, and its importance is amplified by the introduction of communication and social media, and is now absolutely fundamental and essential to the way the world works.

Social Networking 

There are many social networking sites available on the internet in this day and age but the ‘big three’ if you like are; Facebook, Twitter and MySpace, but there are some up and coming sites.

Facebook

Facebook has been the fastest growing social media sites on the internet since it was founded by Mark Zuckerberg in February, 2004. Facebook currently (as of June 2012) has 955 million users. There are, as with many things, both advantages and disadvantages of using Facebook. One of the biggest advantages, in my opinion is  being able to contact your friends whenever you want; it also gives you the opportunity to meet and socialise with new people, with 1 out of 8 new couples in the U.S meeting on social networking sites such as Facebook. Along with the copious advantages that social networking offers; there are some disadvantages. One of the main disadvantages I have is that I find Facebook and other social networking sites so distracting and time consuming!

Twitter  
Twitter is another widely used social networking site, I myself have an account. Twitter lets you ‘follow’ other people with Twitter accounts, whether it’s just your friends from school or the President of the United State, yes, Barack Obama does have a Twitter account! Twitter lets you tag people in your ‘tweets’ with the use of the ‘@’ symbol, this then allows people to see the tweet and reply, favourite or even ‘re-tweet.

MySpace

My Space is a social networking site that I am less familiar with that I am with the likes of Facebook and Twitter. MySpace is a social networking site that focuses mainly on the sharing of photos. MySpace provides you with a blank profile page which you can fill in and share photos of you and your friends. MySpace also offers you the chance to make/ create a blog.  

Email

Email was first founded by Ray Tomlinson in 1972; and was seen as an instant success, with the amount of people using email growing to this day. In 2010 records suggested that there were 107 trillion emails sent throughout the year which on average comes to 294 billion emails sent per day!! Although this stat doesn’t take into account how many of the 107 trillion emails were spam messages. Some people prefer putting pen to paper and writing a heartfelt letter an acquaintance, I personally on the other hand am a huge fan of email I find it easier, quick and much more efficient that sending a hand written letter. Emails are associated mostly with businesses; however emails have a huge target audience. For example, schools have started using programmes such as Microsoft Exchange and more recently Microsoft Web App. I think that Email is a great advantage for school because it let students contact teachers on any work that they may be stuck on or any work they want to hand in. Email also saves a huge amount of paper, with documents sent in messages, instead of on paper. There are disadvantages of Email, with people sending spam messages with some containing viruses.

Blogging

Blogging has seen a sudden rise over the years with over 200 million known blogs online. The rise in popularity is down to the simplicity of them, being able to make a blog about whatever you want and about whatever you want. Most blogs allow the ‘blogger’ to insert pictures, videos and hyperlinks. Most companies now have blogs, with brands such as Topman (http://blog.topman.com/) and Topshop (http://insideout.topshop.com/) with their own blogs, were the latest items and new can be found.

Instant Messaging

MSN

Instant messaging is a real time text based conversation system, mains providers such as MSN and Skype allow you to contact friends and family and get replies in seconds. MSN is part of Microsoft; it was released in 1995 and is now used by millions of people. You sign up to MSN by using your Email address; you can then add other people by using their Email. After they have accepted you invitation, supposing that they do, you can then chat to them for as long as you want; you can also send sound files, pictures and videos. An advantage of this is that it enables you to talk to relatives for example who live on the other side of the world; this experience is made even better with the introduction of a webcam and microphone. Again along with other sites where you Email is required there are dangers of messages carrying viruses, and MSN is no exception.

Skype

Skype also is also an instant messaging service which was launched in 2003. Skype is used by people for casual reasons but can also be used by businesses for video conferencing; Skype offers multi-chat options that MSN does not. Overall from my personal experience is that Skype is better, it offers HD video as well as all of the features of MSN.

Mobile Phones

 

Mobile phone companies have now started to put instant messaging systems into their mobile phones. Blackberry are a leading figure head in this with the introduction of Blackberry Messenger which is a free texting service which can be used from one Blackberry device to another, which allows you to send pictures as well as text. Apple are Blackberry’s closest rivals with their iMessage system which works with IPhones, IPod’s and Mac computers.

 Forums

A forum is an online discussion board where people can topic about a give topic; topics can include; sport, fashion, technology etc.

Overall I think that social media is very important to our lifestyles, it has really changed the world that we live in today. Hopefully it will be good to see the way it develops over the upcoming years.

Education

There are a huge amount of sites online that offer Education in a huge range of subjects from the academic to the creative. These sites range from the small relatively unknown sites such as History Learning Site (www.historylearningsite.com) to the huge websites used nationally and internationally such as BBC Bitesize and the ever growing MyMaths. BBC Bitesize is by far and away the largest educational website on the internet today  with education courses ranging from low level primary school to the top end of secondary school helping students completing there A-Levels.

From personal experience I can say that online education has helped me a lot. Through my education I have frequently used and re-visited BBC Bitesize for useful revise notes and practice exam questions.

E-Commerce
E-Commerce is a title that covers mostly transactional websites on the internet with online shopping and music downloading falling into this category; e-commerce also gives people the opportunity to pay bills online and manage their banking. Online shopping has revolutionised the way that people go about buying things in today’s society. Shops like Amazon (www.amazon.com) and Ebay (www.ebay.com) being two huge players in the online shopping world. Online transactional websites offer a huge range of items and deals that you wouldn’t find on the high street; they also allow big companies to order goods in bulk. Online banking is another section under e-commerce. Online banking allows customers to 24/7 banking, paying in cheques and paying off bills and checking their bank balance on the go, this is seen as a great convenience for many people. From personal experience e-commerce is a great addition to the online services, its allows you to order things 24/7 (when the shops would be shut); you can also order items with ‘next day delivery’ which is extremely useful when you are in urgent need of the item you are ordering. Amazon offer excellent prices and offers on most of their products giving you the option between new and used copies.

 Entertainment

Music

Online Services offer a huge range of entertainment from music to films, gaming to television programmes. One of the most widely used entertainment facilities online is iTunes. iTunes allows customers to buy music, video, films, audio books, podcasts and ‘sync’ them onto their MP3/MP4 device. With the introduction of MP4’s iTunes was able to branch out into the world of apps (applications) with different categories being introduced such as: gaming, education, news etc. iTunes is by far and away the most commonly used music download site. Behind iTunes (all be it a long way behind) is Spotify. Spotify offers its users 3 different options: a free trial run, Spotify Premium and Spotify Unlimited. The free trial run offers customers a 20 hour listening limit to which the get a taste for the site, Premium offers users full access to all music for £4.99 a month and finally Unlimited, this gives customers free access to music weather they are offline or connected to the internet for £9.99 a month. iTunes is my choice of music download site, I find it very user friendly and with song prices ranging from 0.69p to 0.99p it is fairly priced.

VideoThere are a huge number of sites which allow people to view and up load videos online. The first name that will pop into anyone’s head if you mention videos online would be YouTube. YouTube is far and away the largest video streaming site on the internet; it allows people to watch, upload, like, comment and subscribe to YouTube channels.

YouTube Facts:

60 hours of video are uploaded every minute, or one hour of video is uploaded to YouTube every second. 

Over 4 billion videos are viewed a day. 

Over 800 million unique users visit YouTube each month. 

Over 3 billion hours of video are watched each month on YouTube.

These shows how widely used YouTube is all over the globe. From personal experience uploading videos to YouTube is simple; require very little effort, if at sometimes a little patience’s

As well as YouTube there are other video streaming sites set up by TV Channels. BBC IPlayer allows people to view program’s they have missed online as well as past series of those programs. Channel 4 has their own sites ‘4oD’ as do ITV with ‘ITV Player’. All of these sites offer the same services.

Online Gaming

There has been huge advancements in computer gaming in the past 3 – 4 years. Both Microsoft (Xbox) and Sony (PlayStation) have introduced online gaming into their consoles. Online gaming offers customers to play against friends and people all over the world through the providers servers; this has led to bigger things for both companies with online competitions being set up, some even with cash prizes.

 

Real – Time Information

Real-Time Information is another hugely helpful aspect of the internet. Real-Time Information includes topics like: Weather Forecasts, Traffic Updates, News Feeds, Ticket Booking, Airline Information, G.P.S and Parcel Tracking. Real-Time Information allows people to obtain information as it is happening such as the latest news headlines. With the introduction of 3G to mobile phones people can now access real-time information on the go. Parcel tracking is another part of real-time information; parcel tracking allows the customer to track the delivery every step of its journey whether it be new TV or the online food shopping

E-Government

E-Government is a reasonably new concept; but has been on the rise for the last 10 years. E-Gov is basically the use of the internet by the government, public sectors and local authorities such as the police. One of the advantages of e-government is it allows the majority of people to have a say in what is done in their local area.

E-Petitions or Online Petitions allow people to vote on current situations that the governments have. The E-Petitions on Kent’s council allow people who live in Kent to vote on how Kent is run and possible ideas. Once a petition reaches enough signatures/ votes the act will be passed.

In my personal experience E-Petitions have little effect unless a substantial amount of people sign for the petition. I once signed for a petition to get Kent Freedom Passes available for Year 12's and 13's but even with the thousands of signatures it still went un-noticed.  

There are advantages and disadvantages of E-Government:

Advantages

Everyone can have an equal say

Saves going down to your town hall and voting

Can watch them online after

Saves paper as it all done online

Disadvantages

People who do not live in that county can still go on the website and vote

Not all people have access to the Internet

Usually have to sign up and make an account