How Social Media Communication Has Changed The  world?

Business   doesn't happen face to face as often as some would like. Instead, today's communication  depends on conference calls and emails chains that make it challenging to get to know your partners. It's been a common lament among business people dissatisfied with the technology that has become the norm in their daily lives,But with so many worker     worldwide now working in virtual teams .                                                                          .

There  many business relationships do depend on technology. And that's not a bad thing --   as long they're using the right technologies in the right ways.  

The  Collaboration of technology  sprang up 20 years ago, but we kept acting, behaviourally, like we did when we were meeting face to face," said Keith Ferrazzi, best-selling author of the books "Never Eat Alone" and "Who’s Got Your Back."As it turns out,   the answer to all of the complaints about the evolving workplace wasn't to abandon technology for a more human way of working,    but to evolve technology to make the new way of working more human.                                                                                                                                                             

                                                    

Mobile Work-from-Home

We live in a global workplace without time zones or office hours. Just ask any spouse who has waited to serve the main course while awaiting a husband or wife to finish a work email at the table. Delayed dinners notwithstanding, the ability to shoot out that email at the dinner table actually allows that spouse to get out of work an hour earlier and be there in the first place. A fair trade off.

And it's also good for employers when employees have happy, balanced lives. "You might be on a conference call with Europe in the wee hours and have to get your kids to a soccer game in the afternoon," Ferrazzi said. "You can do it working virtually, and there’s real value in accommodating that employee need."
The better that mobile technology becomes, and the more employers embrace the bring your own device (BOYD) to work philosophy, the more deeply connected workers become to their workplaces, which exist on the same devices as their social networks and family photos.

Embracing the mobile workplace is increasingly compulsory. In its Tech Trends 2013 Elements of Post digital, Deloitte projects a "mobile only" future to the global workforce.

Closer Collaborations

Collaboration used to happen in board rooms with whiteboards and bagels. Today, it's on documents being edited by multiple people all over the world at the same time. It's sharing screen data and chatting over video.

"Seventy-nine percent of people work on virtual teams," said Puskar. "What's interesting is that in most organisations there is a preponderance of using yesterday's tools."
And that's where the disconnect between the promise of the virtual workplace seems to fall short for most. When using the first generation of collaboration tools, workplaces sometimes miss out on the increased productivity offered by the newer wave.

Puskar related how he tested this theory with his own team during one of his weekly, 6 a.m. leadership phone calls. Instead of a conference call, he decided to switch to video.                        

Unified Communications

So mobile communications are great, connecting via video is beneficial and social engagement boosts productivity -- doesn't that sound like an awful lot of digital communication

In fact, a M c Kinsey Global Institute study found that high-skill knowledge workers spend 19 percent of their average workweek searching for and gathering information. That's an incredible amount of lost productivity time.

"What this new generation of platforms is doing it pulling it all together," said Ferrazzi. "You get the information you need for the business moment you're in."
Puskar calls it a thought trail. This digital collection of data includes notes from conference calls, recordings of video conferences and every text conversation into a single stream that can be recalled at the click of a mouse.

"At the beginning of a recurring meeting, you get a picture of exactly where things stand, action item status, all relevant documents and emails," said Ferrazzi. "It's like the recap at the beginning of a television show. You quickly make the context switch and pick up right where the last meeting left off

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Changes That Impacted Our World 

1.    Challenging the Status Qua

Before we could reach out to anyone on the planet, did we ever see anything as amazing as the projects and successes associated with challenged paradigms in the world?  With collective marketplaces that match previously disconnected buyers and sellers, fans of every colour, ‘it takes a village‘ projects like Open Source, and collective effort never before seen in the world.  We are challenging the status qua, building things, creating things, connecting with each other, self-organising around important issues, and yes, changing the world little bit by little bit.

2.   Changed by Exposure to Diversity

We pay attention to the small details of people’s lives, delight over their family photos, and share at the level of family with a whole bunch of people.  We’re supported when we need to be. We talk about issues and conundrums and joys.  People are connecting and being exposed to both comfortable and diverse perspectives.

3.    Learn More from Each Other

We learn from each other. You can find everything from make-up tips to channeled extraterrestrial messages on You Tube. And if you have ever doubted that kids are learning things these days, check out this very interesting exchange between a student and his English teacher.

4.   Truth is Exposed

We still haunt Twitter waiting for a cause or idea to support.  Re tweets are our weapon in an effort to expose information and transform thinking.  It’s still an incredibly powerful tool, as its signal can not be easily stopped (following censorship laws or not).  ‘Can’t stop the signal!’

5.  We are More Authentic

People in the social media space are finally talking more about authenticity, which might help minimise some of the junkier parts of our lovely information city.

6.  Anyone can Contribute

We acknowledge that everyone has something to contribute, as long as you’re nice about it.

7.   Privacy

Social networking sites encourage people to be more public about their personal lives. Because intimate details of our lives can be posted so easily, users are prone to bypass the filters they might normally employ when talking about their private lives. What's more, the things they post remain available indefinitely. While at one moment a photo of friends doing shots at a party may seem harmless, the image may appear less attractive in the context of an employer doing a background check. While most sites allow their users to control who sees the things they've posted, such limitations are often forgotten, can be difficult to control or don't work as well as advertised.  

                     

8.  A False Sense of Connection

According to Cornell University's Steven Strogatz, social media sites can make it more difficult for us to distinguish between the meaningful relationships we foster in the real world, and the numerous casual relationships formed through social media. By focusing so much of our time and psychic energy on these less meaningful relationships, our most important connections, he fears, will weaken.

9. The lack of tactics used in non-verbal communication.

In everyday life, we rely on voice inflection, facial expressions, and body language to interact with people in a way that allows them to understand how we feel and what we mean. These things are obviously not possible via texting. And while there are different forms, say the use of caps, exclamation points, and emojis, sometimes it’s the initial wording that can throw someone off and create a downward spiral. Bottom line, it is easy to misinterpret texting .



BY RESHMA RAJAN

                                                     

                                                               

How has internet communication changed and impacted the ways in which we relate to the world, and ourselves, and the ways in which we access knowledge?

Internet. A term that was unknown to many till even as recently as 60 years ago; a phenomenon, which came into proper existence, between 1980 and 1990. Since its emergence, the Internet has had a profound impact on all the lives of the people who have access to it (approximately 2-3 billion people) 

In terms of the ways we relate to the world and the ways in which we access knowledge, the Internet has made the whole world seem as though it’s at our fingertips, has broadened the avenues in terms of gaining resource material, and has overall contributed to an easier imparting of knowledge among its users.

With so much information available with the click of a mouse, it really starts to seem as though the world is not as big as it seems, and as though it’s actually like a small, close knit community. For instance a person sitting in the small town of Darjeeling could have, through the Internet, read about the status of the U.S elections, and which states were inclining towards Donald Trump, and which states, towards Hillary Clinton.

 Secondly, many a times while submitting a research paper for a college or university, or an essay for school, or in general, writing a paper while pursuing a PhD, credible and reliable resources are required. In that sense, the Internet is the hub for thousands of different available resources; it’s basically like an on line library which one can access from home, college or from work without the need of physically having to find these resources. One can find videos, pictures, articles, essays, published papers, blogs, case studies, all on the platform of the Internet. And these resources don’t only serve the purpose for college/school students, but also a lot of different people who may require information for different occasions.

Thirdly, as mentioned above, the Internet contributes to an easier distribution of knowledge. This can be positive, and negative. Positive in the sense that if we need information regarding even a small thing such as a recipe, the Internet offers it to us. While on the contrary, if private information is needed regarding a particular person’s workplace or home address, then the Internet offers that too. Hence it can be said here that, in an ethical, vs a non-ethical manner, is one of the ways through which we can access knowledge through the Internet.

  

Summing up, the overall effect that the Internet has had on about half the population in terms of relating to the world and themselves, is that it makes people tend to see themselves as an actual part and citizen of, the world surrounding them. Oftentimes people go through this phase where they feel they don’t have a “place” in this world. But with such easy access to information about different towns, cities, countries, continents and their populations, individuals start connecting and relating to these events and start developing opinions about them which makes them feel a sense of purpose. Lastly, with respect to the ways in which we access knowledge, the Internet has eliminated the need for the hard work that’s required for instance, to browse through fat library books to find that one piece of evidence that could support what we’ve written; or the need to even go through the daily, long and tiresome routine of reading the newspaper to be aware, when there are websites such as In shorts that provide the same news in 60 words, for example. 

Therefore, these are just a few general ways out of many, in which the Internet has affected people’s lives today. With the progress the Internet has undergone in terms of the different ways it can be used, it won’t be surprising that in the near future, there is another distinct use of the Internet, that facilitates people’s everyday life in some form or another.

By Sunaina Ahuja