Final Thoughts...For Now

Good evening, everyone! I hope you all have enjoyed reading my blog on strategic communication and emerging media. This will be my last blog post for a while, as my graduate course has ended. I want to sum up some of the things that I have learned over the past nine weeks, namely about technology and its usage in society and in communications. Technology is everywhere, and we are unable to avoid it, no matter what we do to try. We are reliant on several forms of technology, such as alarm clocks, coffeepots, cars, and computers. We need some type of technology to handle different aspects of our daily lives, such as work, banking, shopping, healthcare, etc. Without technology, much of our society, and the world, would come to a standstill.

The last assignment for this class involved viewing three videos, and one of them was a YouTube video featuring an amalgamation of AT&T commercials from 1993 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MnQ8EkwXJ0). I remember many of these commercials from my childhood, and back then, I was amazed at the different types of technological innovations the world had to offer. I used to imagine myself using the various technologies in my adult life, thinking that it would be so cool to be able to use a video phone or a car phone. Ah, the mind of a child… Who would have thought that twenty years later we would see many of these projected inventions being used on a daily basis? It’s amazing when you think about it, huh? Back then, it was novel to see any of these inventions, and only the rich (or well off) and famous had them, so it was no problem to go about daily life without these things for regular people. Now, nearly everyone has some version of these technologies, and we have become jaded concerning them, and we often take them for granted.

Think about it: what would you do without your computer or your smartphone? Would you be able to carry on your daily activities without the Internet? How often do you think of the value or importance of the technology we have available to us? Our society relies so much on media that it would seem unfathomable to go a day without them. Even in my personal life, I have noticed how I am always plugged in to the Internet through some form of digital technology. I always have my smartphone with me, and when I do not have my laptop, I have my NOOK. Sometimes I wonder, why have we become so ensconced with maintaining some type of connection? As a person, I find that this constant connection becomes burdensome at times, but as a future communication strategist, I know that having this connection is vital to staying ahead of the curve when it comes to current and emerging media.

In his TED video, “The next 5,000 days of the web,” Kevin Kelly stated, “Every screen in the world is looking into the one machine. These are all basically portals into that one machine” (Kelly, 2007, “The next 5,000 days”), meaning we have to think of the Internet as a machine and our mobile devices as portals into this machine. How does this relate to communication strategists? Media changes on a constant basis, and we see the current forms of traditional media slowing phasing out and becoming irrelevant as newer, digital formats emerge. Many of these digital formats include such devices as the Google Glass and the Google Watch (http://www.techradar.com/us/news/portable-devices/google-watch-release-date-news-and-rumours-1151012). With things like the news, magazines, and radio, transitioning to digital formats, it is important for communication strategists to be able to use these devices (portals) effectively and strategically in order to tap into the machine (Internet) to communicate to the masses.

During my undergraduate program, I studied technical and professional communication, and I learned a great deal about the importance of clear, concise, and correct communication. That program served as a backdrop for my graduate program, which has shown me the other side of the communication spectrum. The things I learned in my graduate courses over these past nine weeks have given me a greater understanding of the importance of being able to communicate effectively, especially when it comes to topics such as media convergence, branding, crowdsourcing, and social media, to name a few. Although this blog was a requirement for my graduate course, I thoroughly enjoyed writing about the weekly topics we discussed in class. I have learned so much in the last nine weeks, and I hope I have been able to help you learn more about strategic communication, too, especially about the role of technology in our daily communications. While I have no more classes until January, I do plan to continue writing about different topics involving strategic communication and emerging media, just not as frequently. Thank you for taking the time out to read my blog, and I hope to write to you again soon!

Reference

Kelly, Kevin. (2007, December). “The next 5,000 days of the web.” TED Partner Series. TED Conferences, LLC. Retrieved from http://www.ted.com/talks/kevin_kelly_on_the_next_5_000_days_of_the_web.html