"Communication" is a word we all know. We talk, we write, we exchange information, we share views, we negotiate. But is that all communication is?
People from ancient civilizations used to communicate with signs, sounds, symbols, songs, art, and dance; cave drawings were murals that people painted onto the walls of caves and canyons to tell their stories. They would tell stories of battles, hunts, and culture. But with the passage of time, the developments in life have also been shaping our strategies and ways of communicating.
Recently, Covid-19 has triggered an unprecedented and salient feature of communication technologies, and has reshaped strategies that have been taken to adapt to new technologies as a medium of communication.
The world as we know it is entirely driven by communication. In today’s world, we mainly use two forms: Audio, or phone calls/conferences, and video calling/conferencing. However, future communication technology predictions have a lot more to offer.
The experts have predicted how communication technologies are supposed to change with the passage of time. It has been predicted by Dr Ian Pearson, a futurist with an 85% accuracy record, what new technologies we can expect to see by 2050, and how it will change the way we live. It has been predicted that we'll be communicating through a form of telepathy, from thought recognition technology, and may be able to communicate by sending our thoughts through a network directly into someone else's brain in future.
In Britain, a survey has been conducted among some young people, which found that in the future people will use body implants and holograms to communicate with each other. The data showed that only 13% of 8 to 18-year-olds think young people will send letters and postcards to each other by the year 2049. Around one-third said they think holograms and body and brain implants will be used, while a quarter predict there will be a new language.
According to the poll, the most popular way of communicating in the future will be wearable technology, including smart watches and augmented reality glasses. More than half of the young people said that they think they'll spend too much time online and not enough talking to people face to face in the future.
The future we are talking about in the survey is not that distant; people around the world are advancing communication technologies as a means of new communication strategies.
We witnessed a remarkable change during the Covid-19. During the pandemic, all over the world, mandates were given on social distancing guidelines declared by WHO to curb the spread of the virus. "Home office" became a familiar concept of communication. Distance communication led to inventing new tools and strategies.
New experiences paved the way to get acquainted with new communication technologies like Google Meet, Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Skype, etc; as informal and semi-formal mediums, WhatsApp, Messenger, Telegram, etc have been used extensively as a medium of communication during the worldwide lockdown.
Many people around the world have even had crash courses to learn video call etiquettes. It is notably positive that we have been pushed to adapt to modern technologies and become better at using them, which may be more beneficial moving forward.
If we look back at the picture of the pre-Covid period, people barely thought about using those mediums frequently: Home office, distance learning, virtual conferences, workshops, and so on. Covid-19 has added a nuance to communication strategies, and the medium has also been changed recently.
However, we cannot overlook the constraints virtual communication has.
As new adapters are shared, interactions from a distance are difficult, especially for a novice. There is a lot of noise, and barriers in terms of encoding and decoding messages from senders to receivers. But distance communication has been adding more problems than before. Long screen-times cause problems with eyesight as well as hearing. Moreover, people tend to become more isolated due to distance communication.
As humans we need face to face interactions to see and feel the emotions more acutely. Still, in the era of modern communication technologies, adaptation and learning new technologies is undoubtedly necessary.
In spite of having some barriers, virtual or distance communication has been accepted as remarkable. Most of the obstacles are technical, and people worldwide are overcoming those gradually and adapting with the new modern technologies.
It is always human needs that push us to invent, to discover new technologies. Covid-19 has pushed the world to adapt to the inventions of modern communication technologies. Human interactions with others have taken up a new shape and form. Over time, we have been exploring new strategies of communications, new channels, modern media, and technologies around the world.
The day is not too far when machines will dominate the world, and predictions of the future will come true. We may also expect computer brain communication technology through which transactions of thoughts can be directly shared from one person's brain to another with the help of future computer brain technology.
We see the advances happening in communication technologies and it’s becoming evident that computers, machines, robots, and algorithms are going to be able to do most of the routine, repetitive types of jobs as a means of communication. Possibly, future communication technology will be too costly, in terms of both virtual and physical communication. This will also include audio, video systems with robots, smell release devices, etc.
It is anticipated that the skeleton of communication may remain the same as text, speech, video, taste, feel, smell, emotions etc. Even if for physical communications, devices and machines will operate the entire communication system. Robots are evolving at emotions, they will be much closer to humans in the near future.
Taslima Akter Shikha is Monitoring, Evaluation, Learning and Reporting Lead of Centre for Peace & Justice, Brac University.
