Ibabao, John Maui S.

BI1B
Activity 7: Communication Technologies

I believe that one could argue that communication in general is a double edged
sword. It’s as destructive and dangerous as a nuclear warhead. Knowing is indeed half,
if not the entirety, of the battle. Information is what starts and ends conflict and discord.

I think that our cellular phones are one of the most important inventions of the
21st century. Communication with our loved ones for the sake of catching up, pleasure,
and for purposes that require immediate attention such as emergencies and dangerous
situations. For example, I was once walking home from a night out with friends and I
was approached and followed by 2 shady men. With the use of my phone, I was able to
contact my father who was then able to fetch me and bring me home safely. Who knows
what could have happened if I didn’t have a phone with me?

During the time of the pandemic, our connections with other people have been
severed. Schools, meetings, and the world as a whole were put to a sudden halt.
Through the use of web conferences, that once severed connection has been put into
place again. Schools have now adapted to a contactless world. Even today, we use web
conferences as the medium of our class’ lectures.

As for communication technologies that are dangerous and destructive, social

media comes to mind. It’s quite easy to bend words and take statements out of context.
People are being canceled left, right, and center for speaking out their minds. The
easiest situation that I could think of is when the elections were happening in the
Philippines. Thousands of trolls employed by the corrupt work tirelessly to dismantle the
platforms and support of the opposing political party. It is dangerously easy to use social
media as a weapon to decimate the opposition.

Lastly, I think that vlogs and vloggers are the worst offenders of being incredibly
fragile and influential to society. Every day these internet personalities create content
that millions of people consume. Even the younger generations are influenced by the
grasp of these content creators. Although their content mainly revolves around their day
to day lives and experiences, they are easily motivated by their greed and can be easily
bought. They are especially useful to political parties during times of elections. Their
issues are incredibly superficial as well. An example would be the current issue of these
vloggers and influencers that I have absolutely no knowledge of. Why and how could
people care about these rich people that could care less about them? God only knows.