Communication Technology Assignment
Assignment 1 Communication Technology Essay
For this essay I am going to write about the current and relevant issues with communication technology, as well as the advantages and disadvantages in our personal and professional lives.
Technology these days have such an impact on our day to day lives. It is almost part of every thing that we do throughout our day, from alarms to tell us when to get up, to ordering food off of an app and having it delivered without having to go anywhere near the kitchen. Although there are many ways that technology in our lives is taking over, it is in both good and bad ways.
When it comes to communication technology there are many issues, the sad reality of our world now is that we are extremely dependent on it.
One of the current issues at the minute is how much we use our phones, as well as how much phones have changed through the years so that it meets our each and every need. Our phones now have apps for almost everything, between our way of contacting each other through messages and calling, apps that help us have contact to our bank accounts and also being a way to pay for things without using our cards.
Since our phones now are so advanced there is no reason why some people would ever be without one, it is mostly like it is the first thing people see in the morning and the last thing they see at night. “Our smartphones seem to wield their influence even when we're not using them. The mere presence of a smartphone seemed to reduce the quality of conversations in one study”(Peeples, 2018).
If you think about it we don’t even have to go out into the world anymore, people have everything in the palm of their hand. We put so much up on social media that people can read about our interests, things we don’t like and see almost every aspect of our lives. The things people put up mostly though are only the positive, we highlight the best parts of our lives and that’s what we put on show. “Disclosing information about yourself in a way that gives people a full impression of the kind of person you are can make a better impression, as long as you keep the tone positive”(Seidman, 2015).
We hide everything that is wrong and put on our best faces and talk about ‘how amazing our lives are’ and ‘how perfect we all are’, this can cause so many problems because we are constantly on our phones we only see these positive parts of other peoples live. When in truth everyone has flaws both in there personal and public lives and they should both be shared.
As I spoke about our phones taking over as one of the current issues, an aspect of that is how 5g is going to change our lives. 5g is meant to be making our lives easier, increasing our use of our phone wherever we are but no one is talking about the downsides of this. “5G signals are less capable of traveling large distances so they require strengthening in the form of increased infrastructure such as booster antennas.”(Curran, 2019).
There is a mystery that comes to the 5g, with us not knowing exactly the intensity of the danger that may come along with it, but we won’t know until something happens to prove this. With the dependency we all have on our phone already, is there a reason why we must have 5g? It won’t change how much we use our phones because we already use them so much. Why make such a change just for faster data.
Even though there are many issues when it comes to communication technology, there are also so many ways it has helped us in our personal lives now.
The technology we have at the touch of our fingertips is incredible.
Technology has helped in so many ways, they are a way for us to contact our loved ones, send messages photos and even video chat with them from thousands of miles away. “Indeed, it's clear that some technology can encourage stronger emotional connections within families. If you're in different countries, you don't have to wait for weeks for a letter to arrive, or rack up gigantic phone bills – you can just connect via Skype or FaceTime.”(Dunn, 2014).
There is also the safely part of technology that is helpful, if you have a query about something or how to get somewhere you have in your hand a decide that can help with that, just write an email to whoever and whatever company you have questions for, or write in directions and you will find exactly where you need to be and how long it will take to get there.
When you bring technology and learning together there are so many possibilities. There are online course set so that people who can’t travel for an education or even stay at home parents.“While contradictory evidence about the rate of online student participation versus participation in traditional courses exists, one thing remains certain: Online courses offer shy or more reticent students the opportunity to participate in class discussions more easily than face-to-face class sessions.”(OEDb Open Education Database, 2006-2019).
Communication technology is the future of education, there have been many studies that have shown how is has helped in developing education for people and children with autism. There are so many learning games and even books that can be bought online for our phones and iPads, the potential that people with autism have to excel with the help of visual graphics for learning.
Although there are many good things about communication technology in our personal lives there are also unfortunately the bad sides, which seem to mostly look at the social media side and how harmful it is.
People are staying in and are to busy looking on social media instead of going out and experiencing it for themselves, and then staying up late and losing sleep. “At a high level, there’s a strong correlation between social media use and disturbed sleep. In other words, the more you use social media, the more likely you are to experience poor sleep.”(Tuck: Advancing better sleep, 2019). On social media these days people are only showing their ‘best bits’, there is no emotion or things to show life in a more realistic way. For some people they do believe when they see these beauty bloggers or instagram models, that this is the way they should look and show how they should be, and when that is not an option for some people it can be crushing.
People can have thousands of followers and thousands of likes, but zero friends. This is were isolation and depression from too much technology. “A new study concludes that there is in fact a causal link between the use of social media and negative effects on well-being, primarily depression and loneliness.”(Mammoser, 2018).
Moving onto communication technology in our businesses and work place, as well as in in our personal lives there are also so many ways it can help us and expand our work lives and businesses.
Technology now gives us the advancements needed to start home businesses and be able to work solely from home, even if you have a busy household you can still answer queries by emails from home. You can now be in contact with your customers wherever you are, as well as they can see your products absolutely anywhere as ads on any site. Just by a potential customer looking up something similar to your company or product with the use of communication technology it will recommend you to them. “Use of the right technology can accelerate business processes by making different business tasks more flexible such as making communication easy, securing your business data, improving customer care and much more.”(Babar, 2016).
When talking about technology, it’s hard to not think about how much has changed over the years and is this changing. It’s time for people to start thinking about the future and how much we will have because the future is coming fast. We now have 3D printers that are becoming more advanced by the day, our 3D printers can now make food. Food is one of the many issues in our world, and we could soon have the power to end hunger. “Oil and powder cartridges will be used to create nutritional meals that supply people with the calories they need to thrive. This process will also help end food waste as the cartridges will have a 30-year shelf life.”(Forbes Technology Council, 2018).
In the medical field 3D printing is doing extraordinary jobs, it can print someone a new arm or leg, and is printing organs for sick people. 3D printers are the future and are helping a lot of people. “It is common for amputees to wait weeks or months to receive prosthetics through the traditional route; however, 3D printing significantly speeds up the process, as well as creating much cheaper products that offer patients the same functionality as traditionally manufactured prosthetics.”(Nawrat, 2018).
Unfortunately although communication technology can provide so much for our public lives, it does have its downfalls. When it comes to technology or ‘robots’ in some cases, they’re taking over. Not in a threatening dangerous way but in a personal way, with how much it is growing and how fast, it’s taking away so many people jobs and lives.
People are now constantly learning new skills throughout their lives so they do not become obsolete. About half of the Irish adults lack the digital skills for the work place and are now fighting to keep their jobs. Not to say the things that have been created to help us aren’t helping in a way, but there are now machines for self checkout so less staff is needed, there is also ATMs that also cash money and cheques into your account. As well as now there are machines that can serve you drinks and make cocktails that have been on cruise ships for years. In Seattle there is now an A.I. pizza maker, who can make up three hundred pizzas an hour, “Once an order for pizza is placed, it enters a digital queue and the robot starts making the pie as soon as the dough is put in place, GeekWire explained. The system sends data back to Picnic via the internet in order for the robot to learn from its mistakes.”(Brendza, 2019), machines and technology they will soon have is going to change how we work and live our lives as we know it.
Another aspect that machines are going to change is our socialism with people, if we have machines serving us in replacement to people social skills are going to plummet. There are now robots that can take care of the elderly, they keep them company and make sure they take they medication, and watch them a lot of the time, things that family members maybe not be able to do all around the clock. In a way it is an option for them to have to continue living alone, but it may be another reason why you no longer have to be as social anymore again. “Along with daily help with cooking and managing their medications, they can benefit from a robotic hand with more intermittent things such as doing the laundry and getting to the doctor’s office.”(Matuszek, 2017).
When it comes to GDPR things get a bit serious, GDPR is the collection and processing off all our data and what companies can do with that information. It is the terms and conditions that you click when you enter a website, that is their way of justifying what they do with it.
What counts as your information under GDPR would be your name, phone number, IP address and much more. GDPR is only there for the people living in the European Union, and those outside of the EU don’t have it then it can have a huge effect on other websites trying to show you things outside of GDPR. If companies don’t have GDPR there are many consequences unfortunately one including a fine of twenty million euros.
People do on the other hand have the right to be forgotten along with all of their data and information but it does not always apply.
Another thing is citizens information, health and safely in the work place. For where you are working yourself, these are the responsibilities your employer has to provide for you:
· A safe work place and safe equipment for you to work with.
· Prevent use of any artificial substance and exposure to physical agents.
· To prevent any improper conduct or behavior likely to put your safety and health and welfare at risk.
· To provide protective clothing and equipment to use.
· Appointing a competent person to check up on everything.
For the employee then, there are also health and Safety rules to follow which include:
· Responsible to care and protect themselves and other people in the workplace.
· Not to encourage inappropriate behavior or influence the use of drink or drugs.
· Can be requested to go for a medical evaluation.
· To report defects in the work place.
In conclusion there are so many ways how communication technology is expanding and developing and there are always going to be advantageous and disadvantages to it. Hoping for the future that we get it both ways will be a challenge, but we will have to learn to develop with it.
References:
(Peeples, Lynne 2018) ‘Can’t put down the phone? How smartphones are changing our brains and lives’
(Seidman, Gwendolyn 2015) ‘How much is too much to share on social media’
(Curran, Kevin 2019) ‘Should we be worried about radiation from 5g networks?’
(Dunn, Carrie 2014) ‘Is technology helping families communicate or holding them back?’
(OEDb: Open education database 2006-2019) ’10 advantages to taking online classes’
(Tuck: Advancing better sleep 2019) ‘Social media and sleep’
(Mammoser, Gigen 2018) ‘The fomo is real: How social media increases depression and loneliness’
(Babar, Tayyab 2016) ‘5 best new technologies for your business’
(Expert Panel, Forbes Technology council 2018) ’12 revolutionary ways 3D printing is changing the world’
(Nawrat, Allie 2018) ‘3D printing in the medical field: Four major applications revolutionizing the industry’
(Brendza, Zach 2019) ‘This robot can make 300 pizzas in an hour’
(Matuszek, Cynthia 2017) ‘How robots could help the elderly age in their homes’
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