I, 21st Century Communicator

BY ANA MARIE SUAREZ

All throughout this semester in our COMM 10 course, I have learned a lot about how communication is a very relevant part of the continuous change of our society. From the beginning where people’s way to communicate from each other is through oral communication, to the emergence of writing systems and lately with the development of technology that brought new different kinds of media used to interact with other people.

Our ancestors communicate orally where narrations about different origins of things around them are passed to different generations. These folklores, stories, myths or historical events passed down from generation to generation did have an important role in our society. These determined the traditions and beliefs of our ancestors and in which became ours as well. And with the emergence of writing systems, it made the possibility to record things and preserve not only their knowledge but also their practices, traditions and beliefs that would contribute of what we are in the present and for the future generation as well. As years of development have gone by comes technology that made the life of the people easier. But, did it really make our life more convenient or more likely a destruction?

A lot of us, if not all, are using new media in communicating with other people. Mobile phones are used for easy interaction between people especially those who are very far from each other. With just one tap, we can access or share information from and to a wide scope of audience. And this is the downside of the media we call today as “The Internet”. It does not only lie in the sole purpose of communicating other folks but in shaping one’s identity as well. Internet users do all whatever they want even the inappropriate actions. I have thought of how freedom of speech has gone wrong in this medium of communication. In expressing opinions or points of view regarding an issue or sharing information online, people tend to forget to be ethical. And the Internet having a wide scope of users have the tendency to influence these users. That is why, in my personal thinking, people must have the awareness on the proper use of media.

As a 21^st century communicator, what I can do is to be a good example of being a media literate. Since, fake news is a widespread online phenomenon and still a great number of users are being deceived by this kind of misinformation. That my choice of information depends on the accuracy and truthfulness of the information stated from the websites, posts or blogs I read online. Another thing is, social media presents various societal issues that concern us. With these, people voice out their opinions to those issues. Being a citizen of our country, it is appropriate to take part of the discussions regarding these societal issues for me to be more aware of how everything around me works. Different people have different judgement regarding something which is the reason why I want every people to respect each other’s choice or views. And that’s what I think is an effective communicator─ one who understands deeply the various situations of one’s community, one who has a powerful but respectful voice.