Lifetimes Of Interpersonal Communication

Interpersonal communication has changed drastically over my parent’s lifetimes. My parent’s lifetimes began in 1966 and since then interpersonal communication has grown at a rather rapid rate. With the launch of the internet to the evolution of social media, the world of interpersonal communication has changed. The cumulative effect of the evolutions of interpersonal communication changed the world. Information access, instant messaging, and the rise of video material have all impacted interpersonal communication. Most Communication is now done digitally, which is very different than at the start of my parent’s lifetimes. The new generation’s digital communication launched a new era of communication but also changed impacted lives in different

When my parent’s life time began they were forced to either call who they needed to reach or find a way to meet in person. That limited way of interpersonal communication proved to be rather hard to execute and often caused relationships to end because people lost communication with one another. Interpersonal communication was fairly difficult until the internet came out in 1991. In 1991 the internet changed everything. However, one problem was that the internet was not cheap, according to Christopher Lutz, “While the internet solved a whole lot of problems for the world many problems were created as well. For one the internet was not cheap it cost just under $400 for a basic connection when it first came out. Too many owning the internet was a dream they simply could not afford. (Lutz, 2017)” Lutz is spot on with his analysis because my parents could not afford the internet for the first few years it was available. $400 was simply a price a lot of people including my parents could not

“Almost everyone worshiped AOL. AOL not only allowed for messaging between one another but allowed others to post their own content for everyone to see. People would also post their talent on AOL in hopes of being discovered. (Napier and Wurm, 2017)” AOL had a number of accessories that my people in my parent’s generation were not used to. For one, my parent’s generation was initially surprised that there was a system out that could display an individual’s information to the world. A good portion of AOL users used the system to just message other individuals because users did not want to risk the entire world seeing their personal information. Even though a good number of people used AOL for communication there was a considerable number of users who posted material of themselves on AOL in hopes of gaining publicity. People would post on AOL with hopes of being discovered, which would lead them to achieving their dream. While very few people actually got discovered and achieved their dream on AOL it opened the gate for further ways of discovery. AOL started the current generations belief that exposing talent on digital media will lead to a person being discovered. AOL and BBS ignited the shift to digital content as the primary way of interpersonal communication. The world now revolves around digital interpersonal communication, which all started being of the launch point AOL and BBS