Modern communication technology has become a common global fixture, and is particularly prevalent in developed regions such as the United States and Canada. Mankind has always relied on some form of communication technology, though the early forms of it, such as horse and rider delivered letters and homing pigeons, are very rustic compared to modern times. Currently, communication technology comes in many forms, and almost all of them are digital in nature. The two most common forms of communication technology are computers and phones.
Computers have evolved over the years into many different shapes, sizes and functions. When they were first emerging in the 1960’s, they were so big that they could fill an entire room. When they were originally for sale, they were large, clunky desktop items that came with many hardware components. In the present time, they have become compact and mobile, available as laptops and tablets, although desktop computers are still available to those whose purposes they suit. The average adult owns a personal computer that they use for digital storage and for all their communication and information needs, such as research, banking, shopping, e-mails, social media and group chats.
Phones, and particularly smart phones, are essentially small computers for all the processing that they do. The difference between a phone and a computer is of course how they relay a signal and how their communication functions work. Phones are more effective communication devices because they transmit a signal more widely than a computer does. They are created primarily as communication devices, complete with a size and shape that is compact and handheld for the ease of communication, where as a computer offers communication features as one of many primary functions. Modern smart phones also have many computer features, including full access to the internet, GPS capabilities and a number of programs that originated with computers.