Top 5 Advantages and Disadvantages of Digital Communication | Benefits, Drawbacks, Pros and Cons

Advantages and Disadvantages of Digital Communication: Communication is one of the important aspects of human beings’ survival. In our day-to-day lives, we interact with various people, however, due to a shortage of stipulated time, we find an alternative, and that alternative in the present era is digital communication. So, what do you understand by the term digital communication? Digital communication is an alternative to long-distance communication and it is the process of the transfer of signals through wire using different techniques. Digital communication comes with a lot of benefits, along with merits, but there are some disadvantages as well. Now, let us have a look at some of digital communication’s advantages and disadvantages. Now, let us understand what digital communication is and what are its advantages and disadvantages.

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What is Digital Communication? Advantages and Disadvantages of Digital Communication

Digital Communication is the digital form of exchange of information. When we say digital exchange, it is the information that is encoded and travels through a medium of signals. Whatever texts, images, audio, and videos we see on the internet are all part of Digital communication. The messages that you send to your friends and family and share your photos with them on social media sites are all the parts of Digital Communication. To establish Digital Communication, there are certain elements required complete a chain.

• Advantages of Digital Communication
• Disadvantages of Digital Communication
• Comparison Table for Advantages and Disadvantages of Digital Communication
• FAQ’s on Advantages and Disadvantages of Digital Communication

Elements of Digital Communication

• Source – A source is a sound signal. Any type of sound that is created by the originator is called the source. The source sounds are analog signals.
• Input Transducer – an input transducer takes input signals and then converts them into electrical signals. This block comprises an analog to a digital converter box that helps process digital signals for further process.
• Source Encoder- While passing signals, there are redundant bits of signals that need to be compressed for the maximum utilization of bandwidth. The source encoder is the one that helps in this process.
• Channel Encoder- While passing signals through a medium, there are chances of missing out on some bits (because of noise within the channel), to avoid such mishaps, the channel encoder adds some redundant bits for effective communication. Such a process is also called bit error correction.
• Digital Modulator- At this juncture, signals to the transmitting medium are modulated by a carrier. After this, signals of digital sequence are again converted to analog to make them travel through a channel.
• Channel- It is a medium for the passage of digital signals from the transmitter end to the receiver end.
• Digital Demodulator- This is the first step at the receiver’s end. Here, the analog signals are reconverted to digital signals, or the reconstruction of signals takes place.
• Channel Decoder- While transmitting signals, some bits are lost due to noise in the medium, so the channel decoder adds redundant bits to correct the error caused during the transmission.
• Source Decoder- At this juncture, resultants are being digitized and quantized so as ton pure or error-free signals. This process creates the source output.
• Output Transducer- This block converts the digital signals into their original physical form that was at the input of the transmitter. It transforms electrical signals into output signals.
• Output Signal- The output that we receive as we hear the sound from the loudspeaker.

Advantages of Digital Communication

1. Improved Internal Communication: Internal intranets and instant messaging apps transmit messages faster than anything else to individuals, teams, and departments. if we compare digital communication to traditional communication, the difference between both of them is crystal clear. The speed of sharing the message from one person to another is way faster and more immediate.
2. Improved Knowledge Transfer Throughout the Organization: To make any process successful, the transfer of information is very important. This transfer of information gets restricted due to a lack of Technology and availability of resources. Therefore it is very important for a team to interact with each other and share ideas which can result in fruitful outcomes. Many online platforms providing digital communication help to transfer the ideas and opinions of people working in the same space which can benefit the company.
3. Implementation of New Methods of Working: These days the working culture of freelancing and working from home has become more prominent and the digital communication channels have helped to boom this industry a lot. For example, digital communication also involves the video conferencing facility along with other mediums of communication which helps in building the connection of employees with each other and helps to retain the best of talents with their companies
4. Improved Employee Experience For Different Groups: For a very long time Email communication has been considered to be the most formal type of communication in the business world however the arrival of many digital communication platforms called social media platforms also have helped in increasing the efficiency of the working platform. As it is quite a chance that email might not be on the cards of some employees but the push notifications along with the email can help as an update to them from the employer or the head of the company.
5. Enhanced Workplace Resilience: The work from home culture has been highly promoted with the help of digital communication facilities during the Corona period for the past two years with the help of digital communication. The employers are able to reach the workforce instantly despite the locations they are situated at. This facility with digital communication provides a huge difference way in the terms of resilience in working style.

Disadvantages of Digital Communication

• Power consumption: Since digital communication involves a lot of digital equipment to work with it requires and consumes a lot of power.
• Larger bandwidth required: In digital communication the analogue data is converted into digital data which requires a big data transmission bandwidth.
• Hard to fix a digital working system: Since digital communication requires a high level of coding to transform the analog data to digital data, if any error occurs in between, it becomes difficult for the team to fix it easily.
• Needs synchronization: In the case of synchronous modulation, at times synchronization is also required.

Comparison Table for Advantages and Disadvantages of Digital Communication

FAQ’s on Advantages and Disadvantages of Digital Communication

Question 1.
List essential characteristics of digital communication.

Answer:
Below are the essential characteristics of digital communication:

• These are continuous signals.
• These electronic signals are processed and transmitted better when compared with analog signals.
• These signals are versatile and widely used.
• The accuracy of the digital signal is great.

Question 2.
List five examples of digital communication.

Answer:
Below are the top examples of digital communication:

• Email
• Websites
• Blogs
• Social media
• Live chats
• Chatbots
• Video chat
• Web calling

Question 3.
What is necessary for digital communication?

Answer:
Below are the three things important for digital communication:

• Bit, character,
• Frame synchronization, and
• Precision timing.

Question 4.
List the types of digital communication systems.

Answer:
The Internet, Email, Cell Phones, High-Definition Television or HD TV, and Physical Digital Media are some of the types of digital communication.