COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY 2021:

THE NEXT LANDSCAPE

HAVE YOU EVER THOUGHT ABOUT WHAT TECHNOLOGIES WOULD EXIST IN THE

FUTURE?

When thinking about all the exciting innovations in our horizon I was able to decide on the three I felt would be the most widely accepted by society.

FUTURE INNOVATIONS

VIDEO MESSAGING

UNIVERSAL TRANSLATION DEVICES

TOUCHSCREEN COMPUTERS

I WAS ABLE TO COME TO THESE CONCLUSIONS BY USING THE FOLLOWING THEORIES:

The Umbrella Perspective

Roger’s Diffusion of Innovation

Moore’s Innovation Adoption Rate

Critical Mass Theory

Uses and Gratifications

Media System Dependency Theory

Social Learning

The Theory of the Long Tail

THE UMBRELLA PERSPECTIVE

The Umbrella Perspective is a way of translating the meaning behind how communication technologies come to be, how they work, and how they make their way into society. There are five segments, all of which fit together to make an umbrella, that describes this process. Those five segments are:

Hardware

Software

Organizational Infrastructure

Social System:

Individual Users

ROGER’S DIFFUSION OF INNOVATION

According to Grant (2004), “This theory tries to explain how an innovation is communicated over time through different channels to members of a social system”. When Grants speaks of the different channels, he is explaining how innovations like the iPhone or Kindle are presented to society through different forms of media, including, television commercials, internet ads, product placement, etc. In essence this theory explains how and why this innovation is or is not accepted within a given society.

MOORE’S INNOVATION ADOPTION RATE In this theory we are taught about who are the first to adopt a new technology and the last. Along with that we also lean the rate at which different types of people adopt a new technology into their world and the greater society. Grant (2004) explains "the rate of adoption generally follows an S-shaped “diffusion curve” where the X-axis is time and the Y-axis is percent of adopters”.

VIDEO MESSAGING

WIDESPREAD USE OF VIDEO MESSAGING

Using the previous theories I was able to gain a better perspective of how Video Messaging will make it’s way into society as a widespread communication technology by the year 2021.

We are already on the way there with many Innovators and Early Adopters using this technology.

In addition to this, many media formats are also presenting this new technology in a positive and reinforcing light.

CRITICAL MASS THEORY

The Critical Mass Theory discusses the point at which a society begins to assimilate an innovation into everyday life. An example of how the Critical Mass Theory works would be when the iPods first came out. At the beginning many people seemed hesitant to switch over to a new music medium, but once they learned more about the technology and how it worked slowly people began to see the value in them. Now you can’t walk down the street without seeing someone using one.

USES AND GRATIFICATIONS

The Uses and Gratifications Theory is used to determine just that “Uses and Gratifications”. Have you ever wondered what makes a product or technology so successful? Does the technology satisfy some basic need? Is it used for relaxation or excitement? Is it used by habit? The Uses and Gratification Theory seeks to answer these questions and more.

MEDIA SYSTEM DEPENDENCY THEORY

According to Grant (1991), the Media System Dependency Theory is “an ecological theory that attempts to explore the role of media in society by examining dependency relations within and across levels of analysis” (p. 774). What this means is that this theory attempts to explain why people have dependencies on media. The theory explains that there three types of needs that are being met, understanding, orientation, and play.

TOUCH SCREEN COMPUTERS

WISESPREAD USE OF TOUCH SCREEN COMPUTERS

The aforementioned theories were effective in helping me determine whether the widespread use of Touch Screen Computers would be used in the future.

Touch Screen Computers are the new wave of computer technology that provides ease in collecting and transmitting data thus making communication easier than ever before.

Furthermore, Touch Screen Computers are already being assimilated into our society through the use of Touch Screen Phones.

SOCIAL LEARNING THEORY

The Social Learning Theory examines how people learn through modeling. An example of this would be someone seeing me using my Translation Device to speak with someone from another country, who speaks a different language. After seeing me do that they become aware of the product and may go pick it up for themselves.

Either way they have been taught and modeled how to use this new technology.

THE THEORY OF LONG TAIL

The Theory of the Long Tail explains how our society is moving away from just providing consumers with the most popular products, TV Shows, and Albums and moving more in the direction of providing to niche markets. What Chris Anderson, creator of the Theory was able to discover was that “taken one at a time, these niche markets may not generate significant revenue but when they are aggregated, these markets are significant” (Grant, 2004, p. 49)

UNIVERSAL TRANSLATING DEVICE

UNIVERSAL TRANSLATION DEVICES

Universal Translation devices are the next wave of communicating.

As we as a society become more global, we also are finding new ways to communicate like never before.

This type of device is already being used but by 2021 it will so widespread that anyone could travel to another county and be able to speak with someone with a different language then them without actually learning the language.

This new innovation will open up worldwide communication like we have never seen before.

DISCOVERING A DIFFERENT TOMORROW

Throughout the course of this semester I have been able to learn about technology and how it greatly affects our communication as a society.

With the new innovations of the future I was able to see the possibility of future innovation. The

truly excited to see what comes next.

REFERENCE

. Grant, A. & Harman Meadows, J. (2001) Communication Technology Update and Fundamentals. Burlingham, MA: Focal Press.