Technology.

When I did my first communications internships, the fax machine was still fairly new. In fact, at one non-profit I worked at, I actually needed permission to send a fax because of the cost. Today, the fax machine has gone the way of the dinosaur, at least in terms of an everyday communications tool.

At my first in-house job, our computer system was DOS and we worked on word processors. (Never heard of them? Try Google.) They did convert to a Windows-based PC system within that year, which made the hours I spent on the computer so much more enjoyable and user-friendly.

I did not get access to email until my third job, which I landed five years after I graduated from college. Even then, none of my clients used it, and only a few reporters were using it. It was mostly a way to communicate with my fellow PR agency staffers.

Job number three was also where I was introduced to the Internet, officially referred to then as the Worldwide Web. In those early online days, I visited the Internet rarely, mainly because I did not need to.

Subsequent jobs ushered in more and more Web-based communication tools: message boards, discussion groups, forums, wikis, blogs and social networking sites. With them came an increasing reliance on the Internet to do my job.

Today, I use the Web and Web-based communication tools every day. I can’t imagine working (and living!) without it. In fact, I’m pretty sure I could not do my job without it.

Keeping up with the newest Web-based communication tools is absolutely essential for today’s communicators. Old school types like me have to be sure to we stay on top of the latest developments, which, admittedly, takes time and commitment. For me, it means a lot of reading and learning by doing …aka ‘playing’ around with Internet ‘stuff’ while I’m watching TV at night. Personally, I learn better in an out-of-classroom, self-directed learning environment.

That’s where the ‘newbies’ — recent grads new to the communications field — have a leg up on us old school types. They don’t have to learn these things, which are practically in their DNA. The Internet has been a way of life for them since birth.

I hope I’m still blogging 16 years from now, when today’s crop of new communicators is jockeying to keep up with the newest generation of communicators. I can’t imagine what new technologies will have emerged. (Well, actually I can, but that’s fodder for another post.) Suffice it to say that whatever new technologies emerge, there will be a need for the diverse and collective smarts of all the different generations of communicators.

Everyone, I believe, will have something to bring to the table. Unlike technology, good communications skills never go obsolete. They are always transferable and upgradeable.

The communications dilemmas we’ll solve … the boundaries we’ll push … the milestones we’ll achieve … and the tools we’ll have to work with are sure to amaze us all.