Initiating Digital Conversation
摘要
The evolution of human communication since prehistoric times, in the form of petroglyphs, cave paintings, pictograms, and ideograms, to the contemporary usage of emojis and emoticons seems to have a circular trajectory. The epoch-making discoveries of means of communication such as radio, television, computers, fax machines, cell phones or mobile phone in the twentieth century have paved the way for digital communication which flourished in the twenty-first century with the appearance of social networking sites and media. The immediacy and intimacy of communication on such platforms have helped people connect with each other in an unimaginable way and accelerated the pace of globalization. The proliferation and advancement of digital communication, in positive terms, can be summed up as humanization and democratization of technology. It has not only affected the private and public spheres deeply but also engendered a new vocabulary that causes the overlapping of formal and informal language/registers. Digital conversations has revolutionized education, governance, culture, entertainment, politics, and the economy in an unprecedented way, but they has posed new dangers and threats to privacy and human relationships. Disciplining and regulating the use of digital communication can bless human life with joy and harmony.