Most of us have friends or family members that are far
enough away that we can’t visit them too often. Social Media has made it
possible to stay in contact with them easy and simple with messaging and video
calling. Some examples are AOL Instant Messenger, Google Talk, Ichat,
Yahoo!Messenger, Microsoft and Windows Life Messenger, OOVVOO, and Skype. The
most popular one and the one who started the video calling revolution is Skype.
With Skype you can video call anyone as long as both people have a Skype
account. Skype can also make it possible to talk from a computer to a cellphone
for a cheap rate with the use of Skype Premium.
In a business stand point communicating through video calls
has done wonders. Corporate meetings consist of many different people from all
around the world getting together to talk about crucial topics. This usually
meant a lot of travel for many of the workers. Companies like Polycom, Cisco
Umi and Vidyo are the leading companies used for corporate meetings. A problem
that corporate meetings have is the quality of the video when adding numbers of
people who are on the line. Vidyo is now using a new technology putting him in
the lead of teleprencanse. The new technology is called H.264 Scalable Video
Coding. In simple terms what it does is create a different stream for each
person joining the video giving each user the highest quality. The older
technology used one single steam for the all the videos and the quality would
go down every time you added another user. The video shows what Vidyo is
capable of doing.
How do you connect with your friends that are far away? Why
did you pick that company versus some of the others mentioned above?
I mainly use Facebook to keep in contact with friends far away. Facebook chat is so useful when it comes to that. I also have Skype, but I only used skype in the beginning of my freshman year. I think it was mainly because I had it and it was new to me. Now, I don't need to face to face with my friends. I rarely skype because of the bad connectivity problems and the fact that I do not need to physically see my friends to have a conversation. I use to have AIM but now I look back and think that it was a joke. Funny away messages and useless conversations with my elementary friends.
ReplyDeleteI use A LOT on Skype or Facebook. That's because we are not able to use phones. We (deaf people) are so grateful that interpersonal communications were invented. I remember back in the old days we use a teletype called TTY. Then the new AOL came up with an instant message, TTY died very quickly. TTY cost money while instant message was cheaper. We were so addicted using to this instant message even my former roommate was in another room and we chatted. Then later, videophone or video chat became much more popular than using instant message. We able to make a call through the video relay service. It is nice that I can call my mom while someone interprete for us over videophone. The interpreter sees me in video and s(he) uses phone to my mom at the same time. We have about 10 video relay services in the U.S.
ReplyDeleteYes, I have contacted friends that live far away in Africa or Japan via Skype. I love it! Oovoo was OK, I had some technical problem. But maybe oovoo may have improved today. I will check out Vidyo later.
So thankful to the technology. It brings people together.
DeleteI mostly use Facebook and Twitter to connect with friends and family. Especially my family in Jamaica. I use Skype as well and I sometimes I use ooVoo depending on who has what. I also used AOL too, but no one really using it anymore but I still have it.
ReplyDeleteI pick the programs I use by accessibility, how easy it is to use, price, and by the amount of people I know have it.
I use Facebook, texting, and skype to keep in touch with family and friends who are far away. Being able to connect to them in an instance is awesome because its like I'm almost not that far away. I use programs that I can often use via my phone because it makes it easier to take a conversation on the go.
ReplyDeleteI don't know if you guys know this but deaf people rely heavily on social media because it's the only way we keep in touch because deaf world is very tiny and we live all over the country so it's how we keep in touch to know the next big events as such as Deaf Expo, Miss Deaf USA, National Association for the Deaf conference, and etc. Students that go to school here are mostly from out of state because this school has huge deaf population and we all want to be in one place together. So during holidays or summer break, we keep in touch via Facebook, Skype, FaceTime, and texting. Deaf people love using Skype because we don't have to type our fingers off, we just talk face to face. It's amazing how technology have improved in few years. I remember using TTY and it was difficult because you can't tell the person's tone while hearing people can when they talk on the phone but on TTY, all we see is words. So Skype is a great tool for us to use. Also for me to use while I am here to keep in touch with my family. So I am thankful for interpersonal communication tools that has been invented in this century.
ReplyDeleteAfter this class, I also feel social media is a great tool for deaf people. Many emphasize the negative impact of social media, but if used appropriately, it is such a wonderful thing to have.
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