Digital Communication

Activity 3 - When do you use email?

1. I use my email to: communicate with friends/family members, to ask about potential job vacancies with companies, and to email my home email account when I am at college if I find a link I think will be interesting or useful to me at home.
2. I use my email either at home (on my laptop or phone), at college (on the computers or my phone), when I am out (on my mobile), or when I am visiting friends/family (on my laptop or phone).
3. I think the major benefits of email are that you can communicate with people who you otherwise may have lost touch with. You can email people all over the world for no money at all which is something you cannot achieve with phone calls, text messages or even writing letters. Another benefit is much quicker than writing a letter and arrives in the person's inbox the moment you send it.
4. A disadvantage of using email is that your inbox can become full of spam which might mean that you miss something important. Also, if there is a problem with your internet connection then you cannot use your internet, meaning that you cannot contact anyone.
5. Email can make you less productive if you are at work and become distracted by your emails, since you would need to reply or delete as appropriate, which would stop you completing your work. However, email can make you more productive if you find an interesting or useful website and use your email to send the link to someone who would equally appreciate it.
6. I think email fulfills its intended purpose because it is meant to allow you to communicate with people worldwide for free and that is what it does. However, I don't think the amount of spam that people receive was foreseen and that is not an email's intended purpose.

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 Activity 4 - When do you use mobile phones?

1.  I use my mobile phone to ring or text family members / relatives, to take pictures, record videos and audio, listen to music and go online.
2. I use my mobile phone whenever I want to look something up or am bored so that could be at home, at college, when I'm travelling or walking, or when I'm out with friends / family. I use it mainly to go on the internet, to text or ring my family / friends and to use the notepad on it.
3. The major benefits of a mobile phone is that you can contact people with ease and they can be anywhere in the world if you don't mind spending the money. In addition, you can look things up online and use your phone as a camera, video camera, audio recorder or music player which is useful and means you don't have to purchase these in gadget form which would cost more money.
4. A disadvantage of mobile phones is that people text you spam, you can't always ring or text someone if there is bad signal, and it is not free so you still have to spend money contacting people or looking something up online.
5. I think my mobile phone fulfills its intended purpose because I mainly use it to ring people, text people, take pictures, go online and use the notepad on it which is what it was designed to do.

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Activity 5 - Evaluate your communications:

Other than communicating with people using my mobile phone and my email, I also use:

• Skype - I use skype as either an email, to video chat or just to call someone as if I were on a phone.
• Twitter - I use skype to tweet people I am friends with and, occasionally, as an email.
• Facebook - I can have online chats, comment on people's statuses, or to email them privately.
• Tumblr - I can comment on people's posts, email them or ask them questions, either using my account or anonymously.
• Wattpad - I use this story-uploading website very occasionally as an email or to comment on people's posts / comments, but usually I just use it as a story-uploading website.

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Activity 6 - Business communications:

At the workplace, people often use emails, phone calls, Skype and letters to complete their work.

An advantage of using an email is that it is immediate but a disadvantage is that something written in an email instead of face to face can be misunderstood, i.e. the context might not be clear in an email.

An advantage of using phone calls is that you can hear someone talking to you so any queries can be cleared up immediately. However, a disadvantage is that it isn't free and someone will have to pay for the phone call.

An advantage of Skype is that you can talk (and sometimes see) the person you are talking to and any queries you may have can be fixed. On the other hand, a disadvantage is that if there is no internet connection or the signal is bad then your call will not work properly, which could prevent you from completing your work.

An advantage of letters - whether handwritten or typed - is that, if there is something difficult that you have to write, it can look more formal and it is also easy to file it away for a later date. A disadvantage is that it does not arrive immediately and can take a long time if there is a problem with the post.


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Websites I used:

http://bexinfu.com/2011/10/02/10-best-practices-for-better-business-communication/