Journal #2: Digital Communication

For this assignment, we learned about the different forms of digital communication. The most surprising thing when it comes to digital communication is definitely the list of acronyms that are used on the internet. I usually use a couple of acronyms when I use digital communication but I had no idea that there were so many! Some of the acronyms make no sense and probably shouldn't be used unless the person you're talking to uses the same one because some can be very long and could mean anything if you don't already know before hand. Digital communication also includes communicating by email and we learned more about the proper way to send emails by watching a video about email etiquette. After watching this video, I learned that sending certain files that are saved as Microsoft Word documents can not always be opened by the person receiving it because they may not have the same version of Microsoft Word that you have and it will be ignored! This is especially important to know if someone is sending a digital resume via email or other important documents.

In relation to email etiquette, we learned what is meant by Blind Carbon Copy or BCC. Blind Carbon Copy is when you send an email to someone or multiple people and in the "To:" field, the addresses are made invisible to whichever recipients the sender chooses, and visible to the others. I think that BCC would be okay to use when it is not a very personal email because then it's just casual and not cyberbullying or secret information shared with many people, or if you need to forward the same email to many people because it takes up less time.

In my opinion, the most important thing for young people regarding digital communication is to be cautious of who you're talking to on the internet and to always create strong passwords that are easy to remember! These are very simple things that can make your internet life way safer and a better experience all around. I think these things are very important because a lot of cyberbullying comes out of digital communication and having safe passwords to prevent others from gaining your personal information and conversations can prevent that. Also, being cautious of who you speak to on the internet is extremely important because, especially with online dating, horrible things can happen and it's better to know the person you're talking to before you share personal information or plan on meeting them!