Communication of Today

Recently there has been talk about how important it is to learn good communication skills. Being able to write professionally is no doubt a critical need moving into the world of business. At the same time, it is important to stay up to date with the mediums in which we are able to communicate through. There are now countless applications with different features and intended uses. So, for the uninitiated, consider this a quick and brief explanation of the options available for communication.

Let me start with the few that have made head way into the professional realm. Email, as it always has, is primarily used for business. Most students claim they only use their personal email to sign up for other services. There are also a few applications that have also taken root in the world of business. LinkedIn has made its name being a sort of Facebook for the professional world, offering potential employees the ability to get to know an employer before applying. Jacob Davie, who has experience with network administration, let me know about a few exclusives that Google offers. Hangouts Chat is “Google’s Enterprise chat” and Google Hangouts Meet “is like Skype for business.”

It is often said that phone calls are dying, well if that’s the case the SMS text message has already passed. With the plethora of text applications available it would seem that simply sending a text has fallen out of fashion. Applications like Facebook Messenger allows for casual fast communication offering an alternative to the text message. The ability to customize the applications also draws many people to use them. Snapchat allows for organizing communication through making specific groups of contacts, which has been proven useful for keeping in contact for group projects. As addressed above the phone conversation still has legitimacy for communicating. Ernst Bateman, who is often seen with his air-pods in ear let me know that “I use my air-pods to keep in contact with friends and family from back home.” The ability to now integrate video onto our phones has helped to keep its relevance. With Duo for Android and FaceTime on iPhone there is an option for everyone.

There are of course many more options available to facilitate communication. Slack and Discord are two other big names that have found niche uses. The later being popular among the E-sports community. When speaking with Julius Moy he offered that, “If you want to see communication visit the E-sports room.” He followed up to explain that the ability to give directions and work as a cohesive team is critical for games where split second decisions decide a win. This notion best explains how our applications should work, bringing a new way to communicate without introducing interference.