Technology and Communications

In the past, a Communications professional needed advanced writing skills to get a company’s message to the masses.  This is still a requirement today; however, knowing how to effectively compose a message on email, instant message, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn, WordPress, Blogger, Flickr, Snapchat, and other social platforms becomes imperative if a company would like to reach its audience.  Knowing how to use a mobile phone, a tablet, and a laptop, even just to Skype with colleagues, has become a necessity.  Knowing the mechanics of creating, editing, and posting videos and photographs, creating mashups, and podcasts plays an essential role in the life of a communications professional. 

The World Wide Web in general has changed communication.  It allows us to rapidly communicate with others across the globe via a broadband network.  For the price of a monthly internet subscription, we can now speak with people all over the world via email, instant message, various face-timing services like Skype, and social media, which allows us to share our lives over status updates and pictures.  Business depend on such types of communication as well as a means to quickly and conveniently communicate with colleagues and employees both remotely and in-house.  According to researchers, at least 60% of our daily communication is non-verbal, which signifies how much we depend on our technologies to communicate (McDermott, 2013).
 

A recent study released by World Wide Learn states that over 67% of employers will be seeking candidates who possess technical aptitude in 2015 (Johnson, 2015).  A quick search on various job boards for communication professionals shows that employers often are searching for a candidate who is literate in various Adobe products, basic HTML, some minor knowledge of various computer languages, and possesses the ability to create customized content for Search Engine Optimization (SEO).  With SEO usually comes the ability to track and measure analytics.  Many of these skills used to be left to the talents of IT professionals, but has now crossed over into the world of communications.  Being technologically literate can largely assist communications professionals in today’s corporate world. 

It's predicted that, by 2025, the Internet of Things will be thriving and technology will be more advanced and even more prevalent than it is today (Anderson & Rainie, 2014).  Experts predict that our affinity for machine-to-machine (M2M) interaction will continue to grow, and similar pieces of technology will advance in terms of being able to communicate with one another.  Our roads will be built with sensors and will be able to speak to our cards, thus making smart roads and smart cars Burrus, 2014).  Additionally, experts predict that within ten years, humans will be much more likely to be wearing technology.  Everything in our lives will be "smart" (Burrus, 2014).  As we move more in the direction of the Internet of Things, the ways in which we communicate with one another will only continue to evolve and change.

References

Anderson, J., & Rainie, L. (2014, May 14). Internet of Things | Pew Research Center. Retrieved from http://www.pewinternet.org/2014/05/14/internet-of-things/

Burrus, D. (2014, December). The Internet of Things Is Far Bigger Than Anyone Realizes | WIRED. Retrieved from http://www.wired.com/insights/2014/11/the-internet-of-things-bigger/

FW: Thinking. (2015, February 11). How the Internet of Things Will Change the World[Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhrB5ZZXnjM

Johnson, H. (2015, January 10). Employers Reveal 8 Must-Have Skills for 2015. Retrieved from http://www.worldwidelearn.com/education-articles/employers-reveal-8-must-have-skills-for-2015.html

McDermott, D. (2013, April 25). Two Sides of How Technology Affects Communication:. Retrieved from http://thewarrioronline.com/two-sides-of-how-technology-affects-communication/