Q1.
Discuss with the elders in your neighbourhood and find out how they communicated with each other when they were of your age. Compare their answers to how you and your friends communicate today; and fill in the table below:
| Category | Communication in earlier times | Communication in present time |
|---|---|---|
| Type of communication | Letter, telegram | Internet, social media, text message |
| Speed of communication | ||
| Frequency of communication | ||
| Language of communication | ||
| Challenges faced |
Answer
First collect the answers, then fill the table.
- Choose one or two elders near your home — a grandparent, a neighbour or a shopkeeper.
- Ask them: “When you were nine years old, how did you send news to someone far away?”
- Also ask: “How long did a reply take?” and “What went wrong sometimes?”
- Write their answers in the middle column. Write your own way in the last column.
| Category | Communication in earlier times | Communication in present time |
|---|---|---|
| Type of communication | Letter, telegram | Internet, social media, text message |
| Speed of communication | Very slow. A letter took many days, sometimes weeks. | Very fast. A message goes in a few seconds. |
| Frequency of communication | Only now and then, perhaps once a month. | Many times a day. |
| Language of communication | Long, careful sentences, mostly in one language. | Short lines, short forms and pictures. Many languages get mixed. |
| Challenges faced | Letters were late or got lost. Urgent news could not be sent. | The network fails. Wrong news also spreads very fast. |
Why the answers differ: earlier a message had to travel as a paper. Now it travels as a signal, so it needs no time at all.
Tip: your elders’ answers may be a little different from these. That is fine. Write what they actually told you.