by; Christine Gaudette
What is Digital Communication? Digital communication is any exchange of data that is transmitted in a digital form. How much of digital communication affects you and your life today? How much did it affect your life 20 years ago? It is a major difference, from then until now, won’t you say? Yes, the digital technology has revolutionized communication in the world today. It has rapidly integrated into most of our lives that some of us can hardly remember how to use a regular phone, what they used to call “land line“.
Remember how the regular phone could just call only one person? After that, it advanced to calling two people at once, putting others on hold, and so forth? Now, we can do more than just call a person or two or three. The phones today, called ‘cellular phones‘, can call multiple people at once, video chat, text message, messenger, and much, much more. The phones that were used for just calling people, now it is used for almost everything you can imagine such as texting, video chats, school (classes), research, banking, etc.. Computers, cellular phones, and tablets are the primary source of our communication today.
Digital Communication has become essential due to this corona virus situation that we are faced with today. Many of us cannot communicate without it because we need to connect with work, school, friends, so forth. With this stay at home order that is in motion, we as human beings need to interact with others in order to stay sane. Some more than others, but we must stay connected and the digital communication world has provided us with that.
In addition to pointing out the impact this technology has done for us in this time of the corona virus, I’d like to take a moment to “Thank ALL the workers that has put their lives on the line to help others and keep the world going” without those workers we really would be up ______ creek without a paddle. “Thank you very much from the bottom of my heart“.
Not everyone has access to this digital communication technology, but with many reaching out to help with this unexpected situation, there are many more that have been connected that otherwise would not have been. There has been so many free of charge acts that have been going on, such as free internet for anyone. I just think that is so awesome.
Getting back to the subject at hand, Digital Communication, there is a video attached that gives you some history of who is believed to be the creator of technology, the Father of the Information Age – Claude Shannon.
Watching this video and thinking about all that is going on today really makes me think about what the future holds for not only myself, but for my grandchildren, great- grandchildren, so forth. The creativity and possibilities this digital communication world has to offer is enormous, like the saying goes, “Sky is the limit”. That is how I see it.
Now, let us take a look at the chart below;
Growing up in the 60’s, yes, I am guilty of growing up when there was just a rotary type of phone. When it took so long just to dial a number, then it advanced to the push button, and then it started getting fancy. We had only one telephone company to service all the Hawaiian islands which was called HawaiianTel, they started what they called “wonderphone”. That is when we could make two calls and then a while later, three-way calls which were called ‘conference calls’, we could even put a call on hold and call another person.
That was big for us back then, we were fascinated with it for a while. Then they came out with beepers. Talk about feeling a certain type of way…back then, if you had a beeper (pager) people used to look at you as if you were someone important. Sounds funny, but that’s how it was.
When Howard Higa founded Honolulu Cellular…oh my goodness…it was just grand. We just had to have that big bulky phone.. That must have big bulky phone, you know the one that did not fit in your pocket nor could not lose because it was so BIG, you know the first cordless. That was not the first cellular, the ones in the cars were, they used the same concept as the “CB” radios used for the phones in the car which was called the ‘mobile phone’.
There was a friend of mine that could not hold her phone with one hand because her hands were too small, honestly, I think it was because the phone was too BIG. Apparently, Howard thought so too because eventually Honolulu Cellular came out with a skinnier, but not shorter, just skinnier phone. Which was great because my friend could hold the phone with one hand without a problem.
Today, phones are all kinds of shapes and sizes that can easily fit in pockets and unfortunately, easy to lose. These digital communication devices we have today have somehow turned into a necessity, part of our everyday lives. Most of us would not know what to do if we didn’t have our device(s). Really, what would happen if just one day something came along and put a crunch on digital communication such as this coronavirus has put on each and everyone of our lives? What would we do? How would we communicate? Just think of that, I mean seriously. For real this entire world would be up _____ creek without a paddle.
Maybe, everyone should learn to appreciate and be respectful of each other just like everyone should learn to respect and appreciate technology. Embrace the fact that technology is here to stay for a long while. Maybe not forever, but it is possible.
My advice to students that are attending Leeward Community College – Wai’anae Moku that are struggling or are technology (computer) illiterate as I was, to take this class (ICS 101). I have learned so much, learn how to use many different programs, learned how to protect myself (systems), computer terms, and much more. Even if you are not struggling, I suggest that you take this class. You most likely will learn something.
Personally, I am very grateful to be taking this class especially because of the situation we are in. Having this pandemic take me out of my comfort zone of face-to-face classes to online classes has made me appreciate this class even more because if it wasn’t for me taking this class, I definitely would have dropped out because I wouldn’t know how to even hook-up to the classes. Thank you goes out to my Professor for informing me last semester to take this class.
References
[Computer Hope] Nov 16, 2019. What is Digital Communication
Retrieved from http://www.computerhope.com/jardon/d/digitalc.htm
[Oberto] 7 Feb 2020. Social Media Statistics – You Need To Know
Retrieved from http://www.oberto.com
[Pew Research Center] March 2020. Coronavirus impact on digital
communication in the U.S. by age
Retrieved from http://lcc.proxy.lib.hawaii.edu:3010/statistics/1109016/
usa-coronavirus-digital-commumnication-usage-by-age/
[UCTV] Jan 16, 2008. Claude Shannon–Father of the Information Age
Retrieved from https://youtube.com/watch?v=z2Whj_n2Whj_nL-x8
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