Chronological: Technology

GAC 002 Assessment Event 4: Academic Essay

Chronological: Technology

Student name: Mick Qin
Student ID#: XXXXXXX
Teacher: Gail Slater
Due date: 11 September, 2013
Word count: 701Question: Trace how technology has changed communication in your country over the past 20 years.

Since the People’s Republic of China established at 1st October 1949, technology of China has been developing very quickly. There are many major scientific and technological achievements in lots of fields. In particular, communication in China has been changed by technology developing in China. Therefore, this essay shows that how technology has changed communication in China over the past 20 years. It cannot be denied that since the People’s Republic of China established at 1st October 1949, technology has changed communication to meet the information needs of changing Chinese societies. Over the past 20 years, technology of communication has improved a lot. And nowadays, technology of communication has caught the world 's leading level.

The first fact is that telephone and mobile phone has developed faster and faster over the past 20 years. In the 1970s, the telephone was not widespread. In other words, there were a few families have telephone at forty years ago. In the 1990s, telephone became very popular. And at that time, cellular phone appeared some developed areas in China. Cellular phone is one kinds of mobile phone which was heavy and could only be used for talking. Phone became the major communication between Chinese for the time. However, the cost of telephones was very high, particularly mobile phone, and there also were a lot of kinds of fee with phone, like long-distance expenses and cap roaming charges. In the 21st century, things have improved by SMS (short message service) appearing. More and more people began to use message rather than phone at this time because people in China considered about messages’ convenient and fast. Nowadays, there are 900 million telephone and mobile phone users in China (China mobile and fixed phone users reached 900 million 2007).

The second technology is the Internet. In 1987, professors in Peking University sent a first e-mail to Germany. It marked China had entered Internet era. In 1994, the people of China officially could surf the Internet. And then, China was going to into an era of rapid development. Over this past 20 years, 60% Chinese citizens become net citizens. According the information from government, there are 538 million net citizens until the end of June, 2012. Chatting with others is the major thing that net citizens do. E-mail became the major way to communication. Now, IM (instant messaging) has been changing our communication, like Wechat, QQ and Skype. Moreover, some social networks were copied from foreign countries. People in China can exchange their information by Renren or Weibo on the Internet. Internet has changed the way of every Chinese communication, and there are a lot of terminals to surf the Internet. For example, people can use Wechat which is an IM App based on internet to replace SMS. Mobile Traffic is cheaper than SMS based on telecom operators (Chinese Internet users by the end of June 538 million 2012 & China 's Internet development 2013).

The final fact is based on express industry developing. Because of online shopping over past 20 years, many express companies are established. These express companies have a common characteristic that they all use the new technology, like advanced information management system and logistics management system, different from tradition post service. It changed the situation that is China Post’s dominance. Thank to Catfish Effect (the Catfish Effect is the effect that a strong competitor has in causing the weak to better themselves), express companies improve their quality of service and provide faster and faster mail service. Therefore, more and more companies communicate with other the companies which have business by express. Similarly, average people can send letters with their friends, family and colleagues. According a research, one express send from first-tier cities to first-tier cities only need one day. However, the traditional letter usually needs 5 days at least. From the above, it can explain why more and more people use expresses in spite of advanced Internet (China 's express delivery industry overview 2013).

In conclusion, communication in China has been changed greatly by technology developing in China. Phone, Internet and express service are the representative technology, and they will continue to change communication in China. Additionally, there will be some new technology changing our communication in the future.

References

Chinese Internet users by the end of June 538 million (2012), research [online]. Available at: http://tech.163.com/07/1118/17/3TJKKJED000915BE.html [Accessed 4 September 2013]

China 's Internet development (2013), research [online]. Available at: http://baike.so.com/doc/4085617.html [Accessed 4 September 2013]

China mobile and fixed phone users reached 900 million (2007), research [online]. Available at: http://www.cnr.cn/gundong/201207/t20120725_510344097.shtml [Accessed 4 September 2013]

China 's express delivery industry overview (2013), research [online]. Available at: http://www.baike.com/wiki/%E5%BF%AB%E9%80%92%E4%B8%9A [Accessed 4 September 2013]

References: Chinese Internet users by the end of June 538 million (2012), research [online]. Available at: http://tech.163.com/07/1118/17/3TJKKJED000915BE.html [Accessed 4 September 2013] China 's Internet development (2013), research [online]. Available at: http://baike.so.com/doc/4085617.html [Accessed 4 September 2013] China mobile and fixed phone users reached 900 million (2007), research [online]. Available at: http://www.cnr.cn/gundong/201207/t20120725_510344097.shtml [Accessed 4 September 2013] China 's express delivery industry overview (2013), research [online]. Available at: http://www.baike.com/wiki/%E5%BF%AB%E9%80%92%E4%B8%9A [Accessed 4 September 2013]