ONE thing that proves change is constant is communication. It had been changing since the beginning of time.
Ever since the humans existed, communication has been very progressive that we have evolved from the days where it has been only limited to interpersonal communication done around the fire by the cavemen back then. Later on, we had the smoke signals which is the first long distance communication, to courier services which has the intervention of humans as messenger, to flags that initiated the signs and symbols, to telegraph which is the greatest breakthrough in communication, to radios and telephones. These had been major progress but not until we reached today’s so called “cyberworld” where now have unlimited ways to connect with people. And to think it’s already wireless.
Today, we already have the internet which has been modified to become better and better in almost every generation. We started with the 1G, ETSI, 2G, GPRS, EDGE, 3G, HSDPA, HSUPA, H+, to LTE which is already accessible to most of us. With this, it made me realize how communication has come so far. We can communicate with people in less than a minute. It can be through SMS where we can send pictures and emojis that make most of the teenagers understand things easily.
It can also be on different social media platforms or messaging apps such as Facebook, Instagram, Viber, and Twitter where the engagement is very unbelievable that you could even go viral in a minute because of a single dance challenge you just uploaded online. It never stops there. As we continue to unfold newer technologies from time to time, the evolution of communication is unstoppable.
Things may have become more complex as time goes by, but communicating with people has been made easier through the years. We may still encounter a lot of miscommunication along the way but we have to keep in mind that progress and development requires responsibility. We should always keep that in mind for us to promote an effective communication that gives us nothing but better understanding.
Communication has brought us ways we could never have imagined. We don’t even know where this one ends, but one thing is for sure. In communication we are never going backwards as there’s no other way but to move forward. (Ian Kenneth P. Talamo/Multimedia Arts, Malayan Colleges Mindanao)