Final Course Reflection
Final Course Reflection
A current trend in communication technology that interests me is virtual/augmented reality. Virtual reality immerses the user in a fully digital reality, while augmented reality overlays virtual objects onto the real world. Virtual reality was prevalent in the '80s and '90s, but the computers of that era didn't have the processing power to make it more functional, enticing and, accessible.
Today however, both virtual and augmented reality are very popular, and the industries are growing. Some industries affected include gaming, education/training, healthcare/fitness, construction and architecture, real estate, manufacturing, automotive, and retail. My group discussed smart mirrors in our presentation, which is a home/retail technology that sometimes uses augmented reality to show users how makeup or clothes look on, without physically trying things on.
Another interesting technology currently trending is autonomous vehicles. The technology is not fully developed, and has previously had performance issues, causing accidents on the road. Waymo is a rideshare service that utilizes self-driving cars, and can be found in many major cities around the U.S. Some other markets besides rideshare being disrupted include trucking, cabs, and delivery.
A theoretical approach I appreciated learning about was Everett Rogers diffusion of innovations theory. This theory studies the adoption of new technologies/products in the marketplace. The categories of consumers (adopters) are innovators (2.5%), early adapters (13.5%), early majority (34%), later majority (34%), and finally the laggards (16%). Mandatory adoption is the fastest, while voluntary adoption is the slowest. Rogers typology of impacts focuses on three areas: desirable or undesirable impacts, directs or indirect impacts, and anticipated or unanticipated impacts. Technological developments can have unintended social effects, but can also benefit people in positive, anticipated ways.
An example we discussed in class was e-commerce, which has had direct impacts (don’t need transport, products delivered directly to the home) and desirable impacts (shopping from home, international item accessibility). There were also anticipated impacts, like being able to easily compare prices, look at customer reviews, and see stock availability. However, we also discussed indirect impacts (local commerce deterioration, road damage from more delivery trucks) and undesirable impacts (difficulty returning items, stolen cards/personal information). Loss of local sales tax revenue was an unanticipated, negative impact of the rise of e-commerce.
Policy and economic factors can greatly affect the creation, use, and success/failure of communication technologies. I found structural regulation, which deals with market power within and across industries, to be especially interesting. Antitrust policies work to break up monopolies in order to keep them from taking advantage of the marketplace. These policies need to start working over time to tackle large corporations like Amazon, Google, and Meta.
Other policies are concerned with technical regulation (broadcast licenses, frequency allocation, technical standards) or content regulation. While content regulation is more strict for broadcast, it is much less so for press, which is considered very free. As of now, there are very few content regulation policies that have been developed for the internet.
