All Grown Up

When thinking about communications, our last speaker created the perfect metaphor: a child growing up.   it was a child in the start of communications, being told what to do. Then the child grew up.

Communications infancy began with the television format, a push method of communication only sharing the message one way.  Then with the evolution of the Internet communication left behind its toys and games and started its tween years.  Internet allowed for individuals to look at more options and slowly begin two way communication.  Finally the young tween emerged as a teenager ready to rebel in any way possible.  Sites such as Yelp, Facebook, Myspace, and YouTube forced the push communication model to become a second priority.  Two-way communication became the key focus to any communication between an organization and its audience.

           Continuing this metaphore I feel as if communication is still in the early teen years, stumbling to identify what it wants to stand for and how to best meet this need, without getting in to much trouble :D  With a few stumbles along the way, I believe that this will be the defining moment for communications as a profession.  Will we choose to define ourselves as a profession that values customer input and respects individual's opinion?  Or will we choose to cling to the traditional push model and avoid true customer interaction?

In the end, it is my hope that this growing profession will look to the future and attempt to create discussion amongst its audience as to how we can communicate better in this emerging global community.