Of Friends and Fables

The night sky was in its usual shade
Except that the stars were on a parade
Like giggling trinkets and lofty jades
They dyed the blue into a vivid wave

Warmth plunged onto an icy palm
The stars mollified an inner qualm
Like a reply to an unsung psalm
They’re far-flung, so how come

Eyes untied to view the expanse
Saw nothing alike the tiny suns
Like lids ajar like down in the dumps
Look within, pounded the drums

The hued quilt of the starry night
Glazed in gold was beyond sight
Like cordless kite like blinding light
Space is immaterial to true might

 

Trends in New Communications: Truth or Toot

In the Trendspotter’s Guide to New Communications by Frances Cairncross, a collection of predictions were posited by the author with regard to the wonders and what-the-er’s of communication technology. The author gave thirty trends that will take place in the future as communication technology invades our personal and professional transactions and relational dimensions.

Among the thirty trends, I strongly agree with the prediction “people as the ultimate resource” and strongly disagree with the prediction “death of distance.”

It is true that technology improved connections, inverted home and office, and multiplied ideas to an extraordinary extent. All of these wouldn’t have been the case if not for the human capital that provided the procedures, systems, programs, physical and mental force, and purposeful initiatives in the enhancement of technological applications.

It is man who gives out the message, who creates communities of culture, who generates torrents of information, who losses privacy, and who requires improved writing and reading skills; hence, the objective and output of communication technology will always be geared toward the upgrading of man’s living conditions. Without man, without people as resources, there will be no objective and output, and there will be no communications and technological revolutions.

Indeed, man should use communication technology to his advantage and not to his destruction. Man should always be the head, and technology the arms and hands in the conduct of his premeditated deeds. While I strongly agree and agree with most of Cairncross’ predictions, I would like to expound as to why I disagree in utmost conviction with one of the posited trends.

In a qualitative sense, interpersonal communication occurs when people treat one another as unique individuals, regardless of the context in which the interaction occurs or the number of people involved. It is in this context that we can include issues about intimacy and distance which are two factors to be considered in any interpersonal communication.

We must understand that intimacy has different dimensions, and they are physical, intellectual, emotional, and shared activities. Given that technology can connect people despite the physical distance through shared activities like the internet, mobile phones, and other hi-end devices, technology still cannot cover the intellectual and emotional dimensions of distance. Despite the wireless channels provided by communication innovations, the intellectual and emotional dimensions are still founded on different aspects such as education and social status for the intellectual dimension and diversity and commonality for the emotional dimension.

Furthermore, distance can be physically wiped out by technology, but technology cannot abolish the need of people for distance. Indeed, distance is part of human communication. Why? It is impossible to have a close relationship with everyone, and even the strongest of interpersonal relationships requires some distance. Yes, I disagree that technology can totally eliminate distance in the purest form of human communication.

Transformations in Communication Technology

The transformations that have taken place in Communication Technology have paved way to three Information Communications Revolutions, and the outcomes of these transformations have expansively impacted individuals as well as societies. 

 

Let me unfold chronological evidence to the aforementioned premise. 

During the olden days in Rome, people who wanted to know the news paid professional speakers a coin for the privilege of listening to the speaker announcing the day’s events. This was synonymous with the case of the First Information Communications Revolution wherein writing was invented, and Pictographs were developed into phonetic writing in 3500 BC and were used as symbols for sounds. Despite the milestone, information still belonged to very few people. Only literate people were either monks or members of the privileged classes, and scholars still had to painstakingly copy the information they wanted to keep, or pay a scribe to copy for them. Indeed, knowledge- and the power it brings- belonged to very few people during this era.

On the other hand, societies grew more literate in the Second Information Communications Revolution. While scribes could produce one copy at a time, Johannes Gutenberg’s invention, the movable type printer, could produce ten times more than any scribe could have produced in an hour. This meant that information, which belonged to the privileged few, would one day be accessible to everyone, and that technology will be the vehicle to improved communication channels and devices.

Finally, the Third Information Communications Revolution brought about the development of digital computers beginning around 1951. Computers have become storehouses and transmitters of vast amounts of information that previously relied on the written word. Storability, portability, and accessibility of information are prominent features in this information communications revolution. 

If we look at the accounts and annotations presented above, the transformations that have taken place in Communication Technology are not only revolutionary in its technical aspect, but also life-changing in the manner the transformations have impinged on the vitality of relationships, on the diversity of lifestyle, on the operational functions of institutions and businesses, and on the value of human advancement. 

 

Communication Technology has become a powerful agent in the building of nations and lives; however, it has always been a de facto that changes or revolutions will always have twin children- the good and the wicked. Indeed, it is never cliché to infuse the quotation “with great power comes great responsibility” in the discourse on the use of communication technology in today’s trends and times.

About Dreambuff

Why do I call myself Dreambuff?

Easy cheesy. I am a buff in the art of dreaming. I work in the corporeal arena and perspire in the metaphysical realm so that I can be my ideal self and so that I can subsist in my idyllic world. These tasks are not exactly uncomplicated since I myself am an entanglement of ironies. I am alike everyone, but I am unlike no one. I am a working progress, but I am already a masterpiece. I belong to the world, but I also possess the world.

I have always believed that if we fail to ponder on what we want to become, then we are left to convince ourselves that we are actually happy being a second rate version of somebody else (who may even be the unique self we neglected to polish). Indeed, the tenets of my soul are gearing toward self-actualization. I will be who I will allow and will push myself to be.

Soon is not a degree of time but a moment determined by the strategically determined mind. This is my adage. I will keep moving forward, and I know three things that will fuel me in this expedition of selflessness and of selfishness: dream, discipline, and some stuff to clean. Yes, The desire to live life to the fullest is burning my flesh. I feel it, and it's hot like nothing else. Hence, I am inviting you and your inner self to this voyage of bodies and spirits. Come! Together, let’s live the dream. We'll be "there"...SOON.

Communication Technology class and this blogging activity have become means in the achievement of a dream, of self-expression, of an opportunity to travel the known and the unknown, of inner and outer innovation.

Girl on the Stool

Pen on Paper by Andy Fojas

When you're sitting on a stool, do you ask yourself,
"Who could have sat here instead of me?
Do I deserve this comfort?
Who else wants this seat?
Have I been sitting too long?
Am I not capable of standing?
Am I the girl on the stool?"

Friendship Withers Not

I needed to capture the dried flower's essence just before it faded to lifelessness.

Despite the intangibility and the celestial distance, the essence and everything I’ve chosen to attach to it have remained

...just like friendship

...just like any other friendship.

New Year 2010 (E-Greeting Card)

I made this print design using Adobe Photoshop, and it served as an e-greeting card during the celebration of the Year 2010’s coming. It was one of my naïve tosses toward graphic designing, and the technical amateurism is made obvious by the simple shapes and by the modest use of black and white throughout the design.

As seen above, there are three comparative circles underscoring that each circle represents only one person with a train of temper. The first two circles are supported by texts underneath them, and the third circle only has simple icons above it. The first circle depicts a lethargic person who is calling the attention of the Year 2010 while the second circle depicts an antagonistic person who is claiming his possession over the Year 2010. One the other hand, the third circle isn’t supported by any text, but it essentially completes the message of the whole design.

What is the message? Enjoy the visual narration. :-)

(BTW, I've already deactivated my Tumblr account since I was no longer using it. I didn't want to take up unnecessary virtual space cum online garbage) I say har-har.

Spell Smoking Print Ad

This is an original concept by yours truly. The initial design was used for my Desktop Publishing class when I was still in college (like yesterday woooaw). I decided to change some of the effects and turned it to a smoky black-and-whitish illusion depicting the grave message of the print material.

Fogy letters were used to enhance the visual appeal and to reinforce the realistic depiction of the cigar’s smoke effects.The hand stayed faithful to the original piece and was not altered. The hand made use of the cigar as a pen, and it spelled out the main idea of the advocacy.

Yes, smoking spells your fate.

You spell your fate.

Lavan Dear

Watercolor on Paper by Andy Fojas
8x11

Dear lavander, I can almost smell you from here.