Changes in Technology and Mass Media Since the Big Bang, the universe has been in constant evolution

and continuous transformation. Then onwards, theres been an exponential growth in technology advancement over the past few years. Now, with technology communicating with people from millions of miles away can be done by just a click in the internet. We have certainly come a long way. For example, in communication wise; Except for in-person, speech-based communication, it could be argued that all communication is technologically based. With the advent of written language -- itself a kind of technology -- humanity experimented with varying forms of technology to record their thoughts. From the stone tablet to parchment to the printing press to computers, our methods of written communication have continued to change, although several remain in use simultaneously. Similarly, we've come a long way from Edison's inventions of the phonograph and telegraph in the 1870s and Alexander Graham Bell's invention of the telephone in 1876. Yet many of us still use telephones as well as cell phones, even though the latter has been in use on a broad scale for more than 20 years (thankfully having slimmed themselves down along the way). In many respects, with the proliferation of communications technologies, it increasingly falls to each individual to choose with which of these technologies he or she will engage. After all, it's not as if there is a shortage of technological gadgetry out there for the using. In our age of abundance, it's as much of a philosophical choice as a practical or economic one. And for all of the hype of each new innovation within communications technologies, old, or "legacy," technologies still persist. A massive amount of data is transmitted through fiber optic cables and stored on hard drives, yet older tape drives and even-older telephone wires still have their uses. Mechanical technologies can remain as useful, or cheap, as electronic technologies. At the same time, communicating through an old technology -say, by sending a letter through snail mail -- now produces a sense of nostalgia, or, as the case may be, impatience, in some people. That can be its own benefit, and a reason for looking to the past. Communication used to involve letter writing, telephones or -- gasp -- face-to-face conversations. But with today's communication technology, text messaging and video chat are becoming the common ways to interact with our friends and family. But what does that do to our communication skills? And what does it say about our relationships? For instance, just days ago, Elliot Kort, 22, woke in his Lawrence, Mo., apartment, yawned, brushed his teeth and greeted his girlfriend, Elyse, in the way he does most every morning. "Hi, sweetie." "Hi, baby," Elyse responded. "How did you sleep?" "It took me a little bit to get there, but I slept OK. How about you?" "Very well," she told him. Intimate? Ordinary? Absolutely. And yet, experts said, it is the fact that such a conversation is now deemed routine -- happening, as this one did, by computer, with Kort electronically chatting to his girlfriend at her apartment in Washington, D.C. -- that makes it remarkable. "It's our morning breakfast table in the digital realm," Kort said. Cyber-savvy experts view it as far more than that. It's an example of how technology -- and especially the growth in text messaging and live video chatting -- is allowing people to keep in such constant communication that it has begun to radically change the sense of what it means for people to feel together, or alone, or apart. Researchers even have names for it: "connected presence" or "persistent presence" -- the feeling, through technology, that you are with someone when you are not.

"It's having this sense, this ambient awareness, of your friends or family," said Mary Madden, senior research specialist with the Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project. "Even if you're not communicating or interacting, they have a sense of you being there and being OK, just by you being logged on." But the boom in constant connections also is raising significant concerns, from fostering poor focus and lack of independence to the real difficulty of cutting ties in an era of Facebook "friend" connections. More privacy questions are sure to arise with the evolution of new phone applications. Foursquare or Gowalla now tell people where you are, using Global Positioning System satellites. Some worry, too, about stalking, domestic violence and being connected to people who are truly unwanted. "We are seeing persistent texting," said Parry Aftab, a lawyer and executive director of WiredSafety.org, an Internet safety organization. "People wanting to know where you are at every hour of the day, who you are with. When does it go from, 'I care about you,' to 'I'm a stalker, I'm a punching bag?' There's a thin line from what's reasonable and what's manic." However, problems like stalkers and internet bullying can increase awareness among us Such as setting the privacy settings in our social network profile. It also makes people to be more cautious especially when communicating to strangers. It can also increase ones self esteem when communicating with various people. One can build their communication skills and social skills.