Learning Journal Post # 4

            Online communication is becoming more prominent in our everyday lives. Most of the time we don't even acknowledge how much time we spent online and communication to someone. Quite honestly Social Media is evolving not only as a trend, but also as a source of communication people rely on. I'm not too big on using sites as Twitter and Facebook, but I've come to realize Twitter is quite useful. Twitter is what is considered as a Micro blog, meaning it’s a website that allows people to broadcast and follow the messages or posts people make. Twitter is different from Facebook because it makes Micro Posts where a set limit of characters restricts users for making lengthy posts. It’s not a bad thing though. Facbook on the other hand is a Blog that doesn’t have restrictions on the amount of content put onto it. Twitter is a great tool for celebrities and famous people, because they’re constantly on the go, and they barely have time to update anything. They use twitter to write a quick post at any time and anywhere.

            They think E-Mail is a way of communication that’s slowly dying, but they’re wrong. It’s one of the more popular ways people used to communicate virtually to this day. Thanks to e-mail, rarely anyone uses the post office, considering it’s a much slower process sending mail through the post office. This way of sending mail is also known as snail mail, and unlike snail mail, e-mails can transfer and people receive them within milliseconds.

            Social Media usage has become an increased way of communication. It’s a new way to share, collab, and receive info on the individuals or group you watch. They also treat social media as a way to get their news through newsgroups. The best way to gain feedback by multiple people is by using Social websites such as Facebook, Tumblr, Youtube, etc.

            Wikis are a collaborative form of a website, where anyone can go in to add or edit material on a topic. I have learned that not only can I fix and add to Wiki pages, but relatively anyone can take what you wrote and alter it, even if it’s wrong information too. Another way to be collaborative is by using Google Docs. Instead of sending a Document through an e-mail, you can submit it to Google Docs in which you can share the document with who you want. This is a great tool to use when working for a business.

Here is a good walk through video on how Google Docs works. I've never used Google Docs up until now, and it helped tremendously with understanding how this tool works:

Five Words I have learned:

Bcc Line- contains the e-mail addresses of recipients who will receive a courtesy copy of the message.

Nigerian Sting operations- Fraudulent requests for money.

Digest Format- Messages are complied as a single file called a digest, which is sent to members of when it reaches a certain size.

Network News Transfer Protocol (NNTP)- To send newsgroup messages over an IP network.

Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS)- Allows users to send short messages continuing text only or text audio, and video to and from cell phones.