The thing with change is that we take it for granted. Change can be so subtle that we fail to notice it, and before we know it, things are very different, and then we ask, what the hell happened?
Well, what the hell DID happen? In our June 27, 2009 class, we tackled this question on two different levels. We first answered this question introspectively, and then retrospectively.
Level 1: How much have you changed since you entered OrCom? Through answering this question, we were able to pause and reflect on the changes that happened to us in the last 3 or 4 years. Waves of projects, reports, and readings have given us no time to reflect or even notice the changes that were already happening within us. In my case, the changes seem so subtle to me as I can’t exactly pinpoint the changes that happened to me. I know that I have been doing things I wouldn’t have dreamed of doing when I was in high school, but I cannot say I completely attribute this to being in OrCom. This is because aside from being in OrCom, I was also in a different educational setting, and a different place altogether, suddenly living in the city after growing up in the province (or not so province) of Cavite. Still, I can’t see myself going to companies for interviews and giving out surveys to employees of government organizations, or creating a PR Plan if I didn’t enter OrCom.
Level 2: Okay, so now you know you’ve changed. A lot. Now it’s time to reflect on broader things, say, communication. How much has communication changed? Apparently, three letters can sum it up. Beta. India. Sierra. Broadcast. Interactive. Social Media. As I have been changing during my stay in the OrCom program, communication is also evolving around me, with me, and through me. When I started high school, I was a TV addict-it was the reason I stayed up so late on school nights, the reason I’m perpetually late for school. When I reached my last year in high school, I was already hooked on the internet, most especially on a certain anime magazine forum, where we can interact with other people who read the magazine while talking about the articles we’ve read. Still, I stayed up late on school nights and was perpetually late-just for different reasons.
And now that I’m in my fourth year of college, nothing much has really changed, just elevated to different levels on some, moderated on others. I now stay up later than ever, even overnight at times; but I’m not as perpetually tardy as before, and my study habits are somehow better. However, the reasons for staying up late (or overnight) are not television shows or internet forums anymore; my addiction is now the internet, and not just the type of internet where you just comment on what you read, but the internet where I can connect with people. I go to Facebook, Plurk, Multiply, and get to talk to friends and relatives that I’d never thought I’d be able to contact, what with the thousands of miles or circumstances that separate us.
Well, by showing you the changing reasons for my late nights and school tardiness, I have just taken you on a journey through the different stages of the BIS model of communication evolution. From broadcast, with TV and print media, to interactive, with forums, comment avenues, to social media, where I myself can create content. Just like this blog post.
Leizy Vista 