(continued)
|
The most widely used electronic medium is probably the e-mail. An obvious advantage of this form of communication is the combination of low cost and high speed. Like posted paper, an electronic mail can convey another document or an image with it, or even a sound or film recording, but it is much more convenient and immediate; and unlike paper, it can offer electronic links to internet sites, thus opening up a gate to further gates. |
|
Writing letters has become more popular again, but at the price of a general decline in writing skills: neat handwriting, good spelling and grammar, and perspicacious composition are not required for drafting an e-mail, while punctuation seems to be obsolete altogether. Moreover, even if we sign all documents on a screen, it is not conceivable that in a world of paperless schools, offices and libraries there will be no handwritten love letters in purple ink!
Electronic mail has fundamentally changed the nature of written correspondence, turning it into an increasingly informal and "never really interrupted dialogue" (Bartezzaghi, 2006). Its extension, the chat room, resembles a casual conversation even more and constitutes "a wholly new medium of communication" (Feather, 2004, p. 100). Therefore, these could not be replaced by paper in their turn.
Moreover, while the global e-mail traffic has certainly enhanced personal and business communication, the information flood can prove counterproductive to communication. There is also the peril of viruses, which can affect not only a mailbox, but a whole computer or even the whole internet (Feather, 2004, p. 96).
|
|
|
|
|
|