The internet offers many benefits and one of these is the ability to communicate with people in other corners of the globe. This special attribute of the internet helps in making the world just one community. Of course, this is necessitated by the fact that people from Africa, Asia, Europe and the American continent can all connect and have a great time albeit virtually at the same time.
Those looking to use the internet for social and casual communication purposes ought to note that they have a plethora of communication channels to choose from. The most popular online communication channels for social and casual purposes include the following:
Social Networks and Messengers
Arguably, the most popular of all online communication channels for social purposes are social networks and messengers. Social networks and messengers include Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), Instagram, TikTok and WhatsApp among others. The beauty of these channels is that they are all free to use. Also, they aren’t complex to use meaning even those who aren’t tech-savvy can easily grasp details on how to start using them. With most social networks and messengers, users can choose to either connect directly with one friend or family member at a time or they can set up a group linkup meaning multiple people connect at once.
Video Chats
Social networks and messengers are big on text. In essence, this therefore means when using the platforms, users will use text (write messages) to communicate. Those who prefer to connect in real-time and chat with their friends or family members while seeing them live via video feed will need to go the video chat route. There are several video chat platforms to go for which include Zoom, Skype and FaceTime.
Live Streaming and Chat Rooms
Generally speaking, live streaming and chat room channels are similar in some ways to video chats. This is largely necessitated by the fact that they entail communication via live video feed. There is however a distinct difference in that live streaming and chat rooms are niche-specific. Taking for instance the world of online gaming, the go-to live streaming and chat rooms channels is Twitch. This channel allows gaming fans to connect with their favourite gamers online.
The content that’s broadcasted live as well as the discussions that happen in the chat rooms are all gaming-related hence the reason, we say live streaming is niche-specific. Live streaming however does have an added advantage in that users can opt to record livstixs broadcasts or broadcasts of any other gamer hence relieving the action at a later time.
Online Forums
Online forums just like live streaming and chat rooms is niche specific communication channel. Online forums however mostly do come in the form of a website. Reddit is one of the most popular online forums. Forums generally operate in a Question & Answer (Q&A) format. This therefore means a user who is looking for info about a certain topic will post his or her question and in turn, members of the forum will post their responses. The comment (responses) section may end up transforming into a thread as the users will answer and explore more the topic in question.
With a plethora of online communication channels for social and casual purposes available, internet users are spoiled for choice in making their picks. For the best experience, it’s recommended that users pick the channel that best suits their needs and preferences.