Technology is so prevalent in our lives, it is easy not to think about it much. Phone, laptop, app—what does it matter? Indeed, technology helps with everything from family chats to late-night study sessions, but it also has unique considerations of its own. For starters, technology changes your communication, including what kind of feedback you receive and how you process it.

Think about all the ways you communicate each day. How much do you talk to other people in person or on the phone? How many texts and tweets do you send? How often do you check in or post selfies and comments to social networking sites? Chances are, you do most of your communicating through communication technologies—texting, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Periscope, FaceTime, Vine, Snapchat, WhatsApp, or any of the hundreds of sites, apps, and tools that become available each day (and that often disappear just as quickly!).

Many of your waking hours are likely spent on the phone and computer—often at the same time. When you use these technologies to talk, text, post, tweet, e-mail, and chat, you engage in mediated communication: communication with others that is separated, or “mediated,” by some type of technological device.