1. What will the communication
technology landscape look like in 2021
A.D.?
Esmeralda Infante
Comm 303 Final Project
Bill Brantley

2. Communication
“Communication works for those who work at
it.” –John Powell
“To effectively communicate, we must realize
that we are all different in the way we perceive
the world and use this understanding as a guide
to our communication with others.”-Anthony
Robbins

3. Communication in the future
Communication has come a long way since the
beginning of time. The first use of
communication technology dates way back to
the 16th century when the Phoenicians first
developed the alphabet. Since then
communication technology has grown and
evolved and has lead us to amazing discoveries.
The future seems that everything will be via
online. The internet is the future.

4. Communication in the future
Since it seems the internet is the future, in 2021 internet will be a whole
different experience.
• There will be more privacy, and many more social media networks such as
Facebook.
• Make video phone calls from your television. Sure ,there are cellphones
and laptops but having the luxury of making a video call from your
television set would be something entertaining and innovative.
• Increase of sales of E readers such as the Kindle, and tablets. Laptop sales
are slowly declining. More people are buying tablets which make it easier
for them to carry and travel with.

5. Facebook
One of the most used forms of communication
technology used today would have to be social
media networks such as Facebook. This type of
communication I could see being around for the
years to come. Its easy and fun to use. There was
a similar network which was Myspace, but it got
complicated and there was too many features,
but Facebook is user friendly. This type of
technology is our future, it is what people will
use. Its online and it’s a great tool to keep in
touch with friends and network with people.
It is known as the most rapidly successful
company in human history, with almost a billion
users and bringing in more than 2 billion dollars.
It is the first internet company that offered
privacy control which makes it so popular (
Forbes.com).

6. The Umbrella Perspective
The umbrella perspective is such a great example to use
for social media network such as Facebook. The umbrella
perspective is made up of five factors:
• Social system
• Organizational infrastructure
• Hardware
• Software
• Individual user
Facebook has all these five factors. The social system
would be al the social aspects such as economic, and all
the media systems involved. The organizational
infrastructure would be the people behind the scenes such
as the creators of Facebook, and people who distribute it.
The hardware would be the communication technology
itself. The software would be the messages and the
content delivered via Facebook. The individual users
would be us. The ones who make Facebook what it is: a
social media network.

7. Rogers Diffusion of Innovations
Diffusion of an innovation occurs through a five–step process. This process is
a type of decision-making. It occurs through a series of communication
channels over a period of time among the members of a similar social
system .Rogers categorizes the five stages (steps) as:
awareness, interest, evaluation, trial, and adoption. An individual might
reject an innovation at any time during or after the adoption process. In later
editions of the Diffusion of Innovations Rogers changes the terminology of
the five stages to: knowledge, persuasion, decision, implementation, and
confirmation. However the descriptions of the categories have remained
similar throughout the editions ( wikepedia.com)

8. In this stage the individual is first exposed to an
innovation but lacks information about the innovation.
Knowledge During this stage of the process the individual has not
been inspired to find more information about the
innovation.
In this stage the individual is interested in the
Persuasion innovation and actively seeks information/detail about
the innovation.
In this stage the individual takes the concept of the
change and weighs the advantages/disadvantages of
using the innovation and decides whether to adopt or
Decision
reject the innovation. Due to the individualistic nature
of this stage Rogers notes that it is the most difficult
stage to acquire empirical evidence.
In this stage the individual employs the innovation to a
varying degree depending on the situation. During this
Implementation stage the individual determines the usefulness of the
innovation and may search for further information
about it.
Although the name of this stage may be misleading, in
this stage the individual finalizes his/her decision to
Confirmation
continue using the innovation and may use the
innovation to its fullest potential.

10. Going through the process…
Customers will go through this five steps when deciding to purchase a tablet
or a an E reader. They need to make sure if they are available to them and if
they will be able to enjoy and use all its features. Since in the year 2021, E
readers will be widely available and will replace a laptop , they will be in all
retail stores and for a reasonable price. The next step would be the
persuasion. Since the E reader is widely used, persuading people to buy one
would be a piece of cake. The decision comes next, this is whether people
will choose whether or not they truly need one. The implementation is next,
and this would be the E reader and tablet. The last step would be the
confirmation, these is where the customer decided whether or not they
made the right choice of purchasing the E reader or tablet.
According to eMarketer, in 2009, 1.9 percent of adults,
4.4 million Americans over the age of 18, owned an
eReader. By the end of this year they estimate that the
number of Americans with an eReader will jump up to
20.6 million Americans, or 8.7 percent(digitaljournal.com)

11. Critical Mass Theory
According to the textbook Communication Technology Update and
Fundamentals critical mass theory is best described as a small segment of
the population that chooses to make big contributions to the public good.
The technologies become more useful if everyone on the system is using the
technology, a goal known as universal access.
Facebook has definitely reached its critical mass theory. This social network
site has reached millions of users all across the country and it keeps gaining
more popularity. In the 2021 Facebook will be immense along with other
social network sites.

13. Uses and Gratifications Theory
Uses and gratifications research is a descriptive approach that gives insight
into what people do with technology. This approach sees the users as
actively seeking to use different media to fulfill different needs.
When an audience actively seeks out media they are seeking out a specific
need, whether entertainment, merchandise, socializing, business or factual
information. The theory can be seen within all aspects of media.

14. Media System Dependency Theory
An ecological theory that attempts to explore and explain the role of media
in society by examining dependency relations within and across levels of
analysis.
The key of this theory is the focus it provides on the dependency
relationships that result from the interplay between resources and goals.

15. Social Learning Theory
Social Learning theory focuses on how people learn by modeling others. This
observational learning occurs when watching another person model the
behavior. It also happens with symbolic modeling, modeling that happens by
watching the behavior modeled in a television or computer screen.
This seems to happen with all forms of communication. For example on
Facebook, there might be people that have no idea what it is, but by
watching others log and post ,they too learn.
For the year 2021 when you can video call from your television, this will be
greatly used. There will be videos on how to video call for those who need a
little help getting started.
The same thing goes for the tablets and the E readers. The more people see
others do and use, they go right on ahead and follow.

16. Social Cognitive Theory
A useful framework for examining not only the effects of communication
media, but also the adoption of communication technologies.
Social Cognitive Theory (SCT) describes learning in terms of the
interrelationship between behavior, environmental factors, and personal
factors. It also provides the theoretical framework for interactive learning
used to develop both Constructivism and Cooperative Learning (IDEA)
With the 2021 communication technologies that I mentioned users might
see others using them, and think about the consequences they might
encounter if using the products/communication technologies.

17. The theory of the long tail
The theory of the Long Tail is
that our culture and
economy is increasingly
shifting away from a focus
on a relatively small number
of "hits" (mainstream
products and markets) at
the head of the demand
curve and toward a huge
number of niches in the tail.
As the costs of production
and distribution fall,
especially online, there is
now less need to lump products and consumers into one-size-fits-all containers.
In an era without the constraints of physical shelf space and other bottlenecks
of distribution, narrowly-targeted goods and services can be as economically
attractive as mainstream fare (thelongtail.com)

18. The Principle of Relative Constancy
People spend a constant fraction of their disposable income on mass media
over time. People do how ever alter their spending on mass media
categories when new services/products are introduced ( communication
technology update and fundamentals).
When it comes to the 2021 communication technologies the principle of
relative constancy relates to all of them. People want to be up to date in
their technology, so they will spend the money to do so. Society wants to
have the new products, and they are willing to shell out the cash if they feel
they need the product.

19. THE FUTURE
The world of communication seems to
always be changing. There are always
new products on the market, that work
or not. The year of 2021 seems to be like
a great year for communication
technology. There will be more social
networks, television that you can video
call a loved one with, and laptops will
cease to exist. Everything will be done
with either a tablet or an e reader.
The future looks bright and full of
promises, communication at its best!

20. Works Cited
Burke, Adrienne. "Facebook Insiders Ponder Its Future - Forbes." Information
for the World's Business Leaders - Forbes.com. 16 Oct. 2011. Web. 11 Dec.
2011. <http://www.forbes.com/sites/techonomy/2011/11/16/figuring-out-
facebook/>.
Grant, August E., and Jennifer Harman. Meadows. "Understanding
Communication Technologies." Communication Technology Update and
Fundamentals. 12th ed. Amsterdam: Focal/Elsevier, 2010. Print.
Rubenstein, Chanah. "EReader Growth among Americans Surpasses Previous
Expectations." Digital Journal: A Global Digital Media Network. 26 May 2011.
Web. 11 Dec. 2011. <http://digitaljournal.com/article/307212>.
"Social Cognitive Theory." IDEA. 1 June 2006. Web.
<http://www.idea.org/blog/2006/06/01/social-cognitive-theory-sct/>.

21. What will the communication
technology landscape look like in
2021 A.D.?
Esmeralda Infante
Comm 303 Final Project
Bill Brantley