Then and Now

Remember what communication was like in the days of our parents and grandparents? Letters were the mainstay even though telephones were around in those days. Long distance calls were expensive and even to this day many people of that generation will hold only a 3 sentence conversation with me before hanging up.

Living several hours from his parents and home town, one dearly beloved person of my parents generation (whose identity I will not reveal because I want to survive my second blog post) even wrote a letter to his parents informing them of his engagement to be married rather than calling them on the phone. This has been the butt of many jokes over the years, but since this dearly beloved person is one of the most communication savy of his generation that I know, we'll forgive him.

Getting back to my generation though (and I'll leave it for you to guess what decade that means), an active telephone line was a given. The existence of one common line for the family though meant that parents had some idea with whom we were interacting if not what was being said.

Today's modes and means of communication are mind boggling in comparison with what was available just ten years ago. Voice, text, pictures, music and video are all part of the lexicon. Children have access to a plethora of communication tools via the internet and cellular networks in addition to the standard phone service with which we grew up (otherwise known to those in the profession as POTS - Plain Old Telephone Service).

In coming posts I will discuss cellular phones, instant messaging, VOIP (voice over IP), social networks and many other tools that are currently available as well as new features such as Presence and location-based services.

If you are interested in learning more about how communications have developed over the years see Nathan Shedroff's timeline.