DO you even wonder when the invention and development of different technologies will end? Or who will be the next invent to something dumbfounding and jaw dropping? Or thought whether there’s still something next with all the technologies that we have now?
Well, to tell you, technology will never end. It is like a sperm cell, with no mate at all, that grows and multiplies. Technology is immortal; it never dies.
Communication technology began when people started communicating. Technology does not only mean the technology we use today—that is already called technological advancement.
Technology, as discussed in elementary science, is applied science. When people applied the science of communication, they began communication technology.
According to David Ringer, author of The Book Before Printing: Ancient, Medieval and Oriental, the development of speech began about 100,000 years ago, while symbols 30,000 years ago and writing only developed 5,000 years ago. In short, communication technology has been prehistorically present.
Communication, before people learned how to use speech, was not actually impossible. They were able to communicate with the means of gestures, emotions, facial expressions and other nonverbal ways.
They used sounds of their environment to express their thoughts. As the people evolved, their means of communication also evolved. When they learned the art of speaking, they started exploring ways to communicate better.
They developed symbols and their carvings preserved history before people learned to write. The stories of people’s lives are kept in caves through drawings. When they learned to write, they started to record stories and it made communication clearer for people. They now have the opportunity to communicate well with others.
After years of improvement, people finally came to a point of regularly communicating. People who are far away may connect with loved ones through letters.
During the time when the Spaniards came to the Philippines, it takes a really long time for the king to send orders. Imagine, a galleon from Spain would need to travel long months on sea just to send an order from the king. And then, for the governor general to respond, it would take as long as how it got to the Philippine shore to get back to Spain. That’s how they corresponded in the Spanish era. Of course, like all other discoveries in between speech and social networking, technology has always been for the good of mankind. Electronic mail was invented to make written communication easier and faster. Telephones were made to make oral communication convenient for the people.
Friendster (Jonathan Abrams, 2002), MySpace (Tom Anderson and Chris DeWolfe, 2003), Multiply (Stefan Magdalinski, 2004), Facebook (Mark Zuckerberg, 2004), Twitter (Jack Dorsey, 2006) and many other social-networking sites were developed to make people share thoughts and insights easier. It is only now that the exchange of thoughts is right under our fingertips. All these things and more were originally designed to connect people—because that is the main goal of communication.
However, while that is the objective of those advancements in communication technology, it is not the end result. Instead of keeping people connected, families are disengaged, relationships are shattered, and like old friends, communication technology becomes a foe.
It is not because of the advancements that bring people to these sad end results. Rather, these things happen because of people’s misuse of technology. Because technology is immortal and it only continues to develop bit by bit. And while people continue to misuse and abuse it, technology relentlessly grows into a monster that devours the social-moral values of this generation and moulds a new generation with different social considerations more facetious, superficial and shallow.
New world heroes, like Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook, among many other social-networking site geniuses, tried to make things easier for us. It is our turn to use these gifts not just to our advantage but for the benefit of the majority.
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Faye Pablo is editorial assistant of the BusinessMirror. This article is originally from her blog https://fayethful.wordpress.com. Her views are her own and do not necessarily reflect that of the BusinessMirror’s.