Week 1- Lecture Review/Tutespark

The first lecture of semester two, new communication technologies, started off well when I realized a friend from high school had transferred to that subject. Having done a humanities subject in semester one I familiarized myself with a number of people so there were many familiar faces.

My first impression of this subject was that it appeared to be fairly laid back and hopefully encourage me and those surrounding me in that lecture theatre to question the way in which new communication technology has impacted upon society in the past and the way it does so today. I believe this subject will also allow an insight into the way in which technology will evolve and how it will impact society in years to come.

The lecturer, in between making a number of jokes and humorously insulting his colleague, raised a number of interesting points. He firstly defined a number of key terms including technology and communication. He also then went on to ask the students how we would personally categorise old and new communication technologies. This question did exactly what I hoped; made me question the society I am living in. I pondered his question and first concluded that today, an old communication technology might be defined as an analog television or radio and a new communication technology might be defined as an iphone or digital radio. It then dawned upon me that a new communication device becomes old when it becomes redundant. When a new technological device is introduced, it is a must have of all those who can afford it and those who force themselves to afford it. They do, however, then make themselves afford the next new fad when it comes out a month later. Technology is evolving so rapidly in society that as one piece of technology develops, others must aswell. This is then associated with the concept of convergence which was also discussed in the lecture. This is the idea that technology has developed the ability to help society communicate in a number of ways. For example, many popular phones in today's society allow one to call, sms, mms, video call, email, facebook, twitter and more. Having internet access on a regular computer now seems somewhat redundant when you have it at your very fingertips 24/7.

In conclusion, I believe a new communication technology becomes old when it is replaced with something more advanced that can do the same thing and more.