The evolution of wireless telephony technologies is also amazing to me. It is no surprise that wireless telephony has become so popular. Cell phones have become a major part of almost everyone’s life, maybe even more so than land-line telephones. Internet telephony (VoIP) is probably the most interesting form of telephony, in my opinion. This technology allows you not only to talk to someone, but to see them as well. VoIP can benefit many people, especially those who do not live near each other.

Out of all of the communication technologies we learned about, this is the one I use most often. I am so thankful for telephony! Without it, I wouldn’t be able to keep in touch with family and friends that I don’t get to see often. Now, with technologies like VoIP, I am able to communicate with them and see them!

My husband uses teleconferencing on a daily basis for work. He has several stores that he must give instructions to, so this allows him to do it all in one meeting, without having to travel to all of his stores or talk to each one of them separately. This cuts down on costs for his company, which is good.

Overall, I think these technologies are beneficial to everyone. Who knows, this will probably be the main way to communicate in the future.

We recently moved, and I have used my cell phone a lot for navigation. I am terrible with directions (and I don’t have a GPS) so I have called my husband numerous times when I don’t know where I am. Having my cell phone gives me a sense of safety. I can’t imagine being in a new city without my phone.It would be extremely hard to use a pay phone every time I needed to use a phone. My phone also came in handy because the internet at our new house wasn’t hooked up for three days. Luckily, I was able to check my e-mail and work from my cell phone.

My cell phone also allows me to keep in touch with family and friends. My closest family member is about nine hours away, so I enjoy being able to talk to them. I don’t see my family as often as I would like, so my cell phone also allows us to send pictures to each other. This way we can also see each other.

As you can see, my cell phone is very important to me. It allows me to keep in touch with loved ones, it provides a sense of safety, and it has also helped in times of need. Thank goodness for my iPhone!

At a very young age I became “Grandpa’s girl”. He got me a telephone for Christmas one year (I was probably 4 or 5) to call him whenever I wanted. It looked like an old-timey telephone; it was a peach color with flowers painted on it. I can remember my mom making me mad, and I would go call my grandpa. She would come find me in my room, talking to him and of course he would tell her, “You better quit being mean to my girl.”

The memory that probably stands out the most in my mind is when the neighbor kid and myself called 911. I think I was in kindergarten. We were learning about how to call 911 in case of emergency, and I wanted to try it out. We called, but when they answered we hung the phone up. Of course they called back and my mom taught me not to call unless it was an emergency.

I think the telephone has changed everyone’s life in some way. The telephone allows us to talk with people on the other side of the world with just the push of a few buttons. I live over nine hours away from all of my family, so I can’t imagine my life without a telephone to keep in touch with them.

While there are several positives about VoIP, there are also a few negatives. VoIP requires cable modems or routers, which need electricity to power them. If power is lost, VoIP can be useless if there is not a back-up battery system. Another problem that could occur is in the case of an emergency. With traditional fixed line telephones the location of the caller would be easier to locate, where as with VoIP it can be difficult  to to pin-point the exact location because this technology is mobile. Finally, using VoIP presents the opportunity for a hacker to gain access to your information. Conversations can be recorded and information can be intercepted by computer hackers.

I think VoIP will continue to grow in popularity. It can be beneficial for businesses, as well as the individual person. It’s great for long distance relationships. My husband and I are planning to get webcams to talk to our nieces and nephews using Skype, one example of VoIP.

I think that I am one of the only people in the world who doesn’t own a MP3 player. I don’t even own a CD player. We have tons of music channels through our cable service, but once again, they are rarely used. I have the Slacker Radio and Pandora Radio applications on my phone, so I listen to those occasionally.

The reason I don’t listen to radio isn’t because I don’t like it, I just never think about it. My television is normally on for background noise in my house. There are two or three radio stations I enjoy I listening to, but lately I have been listening to my radio apps from my cell phone while in my car. I plug my phone into the auxiliary hook-up, and enjoy radio with very limited commercials.

I know that I am probably one of the few Americans that doesn’t listen to music regularly, but I find television more entertaining. When I do listen to music, it’s usually older music. I love “oldies” from the 70′s, 80′s, and 90′s.

I think home videos have been important since they were developed, but even more so in the recent years. YouTube is flooded with videos that creative individuals have posted for our enjoyment. Home videos can also be beneficial. Recently, a bar brawl broke out and one of the bartenders recorded the fight from behind the bar with his cell phone.

I don’t think that communication students should have to take classes to learn how to shoot/edit videos unless they are planning on going into a field that would require the need for it, such as journalism. Honestly, I think that most people have had encounters with making some sort of videos before they enter college, especially since it is available on so many cell phones.  Most people will probably have basic knowledge about shooting videos.

As we have learned in class, VR is very complicated for most people to understand. These men developed the VR spheres for military training purposes. As I mentioned, they have already sold thirty of these spheres, but it costs $14,000 to make one sphere (they sold them for $50,000). The spheres enable the training soldiers to get a realistic idea of exactly what it’s like to be in real, dangerous situations. The inventors of these spheres said the idea is for there to be several spheres in a room and the training soldiers can work together as if they were out in real situations.

I think this is amazing! Even though the millionaires didn’t invest in the VR sphere, I think the spheres will become a necessity for military training camps. There is nothing better than getting trained for combat in “real” situations. And just importantly, the soldiers learn how to communicate in these stressful situations that they will experience.

For example, my husband has a group of friends that he grew up with that I would consider ”true gamers”. These guys are all in their late twenties and early thirties.  The most disturbing things about this is they live to play these video games. The moment they get home from work, they put their headphones on, smoke probably a pack of cigarettes, and geek-out on the game for hours (they have NO life outside of the gaming world!!). I also have a nephew who is nine-years-old that plays a lot of video games. He had rather sit in his bedroom and play games all day instead of playing outside and doing other things that kids his age should do.

On the other hand, I have a little niece who loves to play educational video games. She is only four-years-old and she learns a lot from playing these educational video games. My husband has a PS3, but I wouldn’t consider him a gamer. Occasionally, a new game will be released and he will buy it, but a lot of the time he never even plays long enough to beat the game.

As you see, I think the video games can be positive and negative for Americans. Playing video games can be educational and they can also be used for entertainment. I think as long as people don’t let the games take over their lives, it is okay. It can be fun to escape into the “gaming land” as long as you can live a normal life outside of that “gaming land”.

Luckily, I have not had any bad experiences with computers…yet. I use my laptop daily to do my homework, shop, and much more. I can’t imagine life without computers. In my opinion, computers have made life much easier.  It’s amazing how far computers have come since they were first introduced, and I’m sure they will only get better.