communication benefits

ICT has had a dramatic effect on the way people communicate.
The main example of how technology has affected communication is mobile phones. Mobile phones enable people to communicate instantaneously with each other almost anyway on the planet. Mobile phones work by sending a signal containing the data for what is said. This signal is picked up by a mobile phone relay station. This signal is then sent to another mobile phone relay station and "bounced" towards a mobile phone relay station that is near the person you are phoning. Being able to communicate with a person instantly has obvious advantages. These include; just phoning some-one to have a conversation, or a business contacting some-one if a problem has arisen and they immediately need to speak with a person to resolve it.

 

All mobiles also have the ability to send a text to some-one else. A text is a short message typed into a phone and sent via the same method as a phone call. The person who has received the text can then reply to it and send a different message back to the original sender. Texts are useful if the message is small as it can be quicker to send a small text than phone some-one and have a conversation. Also texting is good if a person is in an area where they have to be quiet.

All phones have memory which enables phone numbers to be stored then accessed at a later date. This is very useful as it means that people do not have to remember the phone numbers of the people they want to call. This helps because all mobile numbers are at least 10 digits long and very few have any obvious pattern.

Many phones now have extra features to enable them to connect to the internet, take photos and perform many other functions. This is useful as it means that people can access what they want wherever they are.

Email is the process of sending a message from one computer to another via the internet. Email is virtually instantaneous and is cheaper than sending a message in the conventional way. Emails are sent, received and replied to using computers. Recently it has become possible for people to access email programs via their mobile phones. Using email has very similar benefits to using mobile phones. This is because both send the message almost instantaneously. There is another advantage to email because it is possible to attach any file, whether it is text, images, audio or movies, to an email and send them along with it so the person who receives it can also view those files.

Instant Messaging (IM) is similar to email in that a message is sent almost instantaneously via the internet. However with emails people often have to wait a little while for a reply. With instant messaging the person receives the message immediately and normally replies within a couple of minutes. Normally large messages are not sent through instant messaging. Normally people send a small phrase to a couple of sentences, which the other person replies to in kind.
(editted picture of facebook chat)


Video-calls are a relatively new type of technology that enable a person to see a live video with audio capabilites of the person they are communicating with and vice-versa. This is used a lot for important meetings for businesses. This is useful because it means that the people can see who they are talking to even if they are in separate parts of the county. This is useful for companies because information can be shown along with the person. Video calling is also useful for normal conversations. It creates a greater impression of actually talking to person as compared to using a phone. This is because the person can see who they are talking to and their body language.