#ict11

A Personal Essay

I have been using information and communication technology for almost the majority of my 16 years of existence. I was able to use a laptop and computer in such a young age. I remember using Yahoo Messenger back when I was six years old to connect and contact my dad who was in a different country, or when I was always busy searching Pokemon videos and Kelly Clarkson music videos when I was 7, making my very first account online in Barbie.com to play with my cousins in Singapore. When I was 8, my brother introduced me to Wikipedia where I learned to read every article hyperlinked in another article causing my head to be filled by trivial information that only comes useful to me when playing quiz games.  I made my Facebook account in 2010,  initially sharing it with my mother and so my journey to social media and a new generation of information and communication technology began.

As much as I really want to make myself appear like I’ve been social media and ICT literate since the very start, that is just not truth. I’ve fallen victim to so much fake news and fake posts, and I myself posted too much embarrassing things in my early years in social media. But over the course of time I’ve learned what are the do’s and don’ts not only in posting but in information and communication technology in general.

I made a twitter account in 2012 and it since has been my main social medium (lol), although I initially used twitter as a fan account for a popular Irish-British boy band who were popular back then, I’ve learned most of social media through twitter. It probably struck me the most with how funny, but they also educate you in that website. Being connected to the diverse range of Twitter users, I became more socially aware, socially sensitive, socially informed. It feels weird to say it but I think Twitter actually made me into a better person.

I’m so much more informed with what is happening in the world through ICT that my head hurts sometimes. Something happens in one place, you can instantly know it once you punch in your email and password. Also, do y’all know much a simple hashtag, can have so much history and backstory? There is a lot. When I learned about the story about the hashtags #BlackLivesMatter or #LoveIsLove, the trending page became so much more meaningful, something that once appeared superficial and useless to me.

An Article

Information and Communication Technology has existed some time now but hasn’t been widely used as it is in the recent years. Information and Communication Technology or ICT for short, has reached its peak in today’s time. Cell Phones, the internet, smartphones, social media, these are things that are being used by us everyday, and all of them are considered ICT. We use them to talk to each other in easily accessible ways, to communicate with each other when we are actually far apart, to gain information that is beneficial to our everyday lives, and to know more about each other in ways that used to be unimaginable in the past.

Four decades ago, the most advanced technology for communication was a telephone, and we only got to receive information in the form of newscasts, newspapers, and books, and computers were just a luxury for many. But just in the previous decade we had gone advancements in the forms such as beepers, cell phones that can send messages and call, laptops, the internet, even smaller cell phones with even more features, wireless internet, and today’s  smartphones that can call, text, save pictures, video, use the internet and more. We are currently living the technological dream that was people in the past had in the 60s.

In this new form in technology though, should come more hyper awareness. Although we feel like we know Information and Communication Technology as much as we use it, it is actually very new. New in the sense what other people know about technology in the past, cannot be easily applied to the ICT we have now. We are witnessing a new wave of technology, and it is our job as the current ICT users to learn it thoroughly for the sake of future users. New technology comes many possibilities, both positive and negative. We have witnessed the shortcomings of ICT through the forms of cyberbullying, fake news, fake identities and so much more both in the virtual world and the real world. In the real world, we come to witness this generation’s social media obsession, how people today rather than use ICT for gaining information or to communicate, we use it as some sort escape. To a new world where only likes and shares on a post matter.

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11. (Reflection)

Your ICTzen made a tweet journal of 10 tweets completing all 280 characters within 10 days. 

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