Changing Technology

I remember the days when apple and blackberry were just fruits. No cellular phones, no internet.  I remember school days spent in the school library than in front of my laptop or desktop monitor for my research assignments, when I have to borrow Mr. Webster from my cousin just to understand strange words in my textbooks rather than consulting Mr. Google’s weird translations. I remember my father’s weekly trip to Video City to rent VHS tapes and CD’s rather than downloading movies on torrent. I am fascinated by the pictures sent to me by my cousin’s from their trips abroad. I will never forget my grandma’s excitement every time she received a letter from her ‘apo’ in the U.S. And I can never forget those times when it was so difficult to do a long distance and overseas calls.

Those were the days...

Today, people are becoming internet savvy. With the freewheeling nooks and crannies on-line, it is easier for people to send and get information, and you’ll be fascinated how fast this information can reach to billions of on-line users. You’ll be amazed how pictures, videos, and data are transported in no time at all.  Information Technology is the most powerful single force of communication in our time. Whereas yesterday’s dominant broadcast media were about one-way conversation, the multidirectional internet is the opposite. No one controls its content – except for its users.

Is that bad?

For most people, including me, technology is viewed as an important means to be able to finish our daily activities and meet our deadlines efficiently; therefore, it is a need. However, there are people who are using technology for their unlawful, inhuman, and bad practices. People must learn to understand that while we gain so much from technology, it is also being exploited by others.

The use of technology expands our knowledge about what’s happening, what’s going on, in the world. It helps to open our eyes about the different possibilities that people can achieve. Information Technology in particular has broadened the human capacity in providing better education.  

Can you measure the limitations of technology?

While technology is making our daily life easier, you cannot just click on the different search engines and ask what you should do to become the next Steve Jobs, or the next Bill Gates.  It will provide you information but it will not teach you how to think. It will help you to keep your on-line friends but how about those people, your love ones who doesn’t go on-line? My mother doesn’t even know how to ‘text’.  The limit of technology varies from different people depending on their needs for technology.  Now, why don’t you make your own measurements?