As with all communication breakthroughs, the Internet suddenly allowed people to communicate with many new communities. At first, early users of the Internet created brand new communities that flourished in the realms of MUD’s, but the PEW studies have shown that people are not necessarily using the Internet to create new friends. From my experience on the Internet, I have to agree with the PEW studies in the sense that the greater purpose being served by many online communities is to improve communication among already existent communities. What I find interesting is that the new technologies are changing the way in which we communicate with people we already know.

For the majority my life thus far, my primary way of communication with my parents has been talking in person. If my mother ever needed to ask me something, she would wait until I got home from school and then ask me in person. If there was something urgent that she needed to tell me it would either have to wait or she could call the school and have a secretary bring me a note. Things changed a bit when I got my first cell phone. My mother started to leave me a voice message every now when she had something important to talk about. The voice messages my mom began to leave me didn’t really have much effect on how we communicated. The messages we long and detailed very much like the information would be if I were getting it in person.

The communication habits between my mother and I took their first dramatic turn in the later years of my high school experience. I had finally taught my mom how to text message. My mother finally gave in and started texting me when she finally discovered how much of a texting fiend I was. When I would have a missed call from my mom I would dread listening to a 5-minute voicemail so I could finally get to what was important in the last 30 seconds. My mom quickly realized that if she sent me a text message she would usually get a near instantaneous answer to her question.

The newest advancement of the communication between my parents and I is email. I still love talking to my parents on the phone but I usually would rather have them send me an email when they have something to tell me. The simple email client that came on my Mac is basically the glue holding my life together. I get my important messages from my parents, my football coach, rugby team, and professors all via email. I like email so much because I can recall any part of a conversation when I need it. I often find myself looking at old emails on my phone so I can remember directions or what homework problems are due.

My only fear is that technological advancements will make our human interactions too brief. Sometimes you need to just talk to your friend on the phone for hours. Luckily I think that we are coming to a stage where technology can help revive some of the passion of human interaction. I believe the technology of video conferencing will be the first to become mainstream.