Thesisickness and Comm. Tech

July 23, 2009 · Filed under Orcom · Tagged Communication, irishprecious, New Social Media, Orcom, Organizational Communication, Technological Gap, UP Manila

One of the things most incoming senior students look forward to, and most probably dread, is the whole idea of thesis-making. I know I did when I was just about to enter senior years. We were even told by the upper batch, back when we were juniors, to at least come up with a general idea on what area we want to study; unfortunately, most of us never did that. All we cared about during those times was to end our junior year, which for most of us is the most toxic period of our college life. Now here I am, officially a senior student. And the whole thesis madness has already begun.

The first real question we asked ourselves when we started was: what should be my thesis topic? I can even remember the day when the thesis section of the library was so jam-packed with Orcom Students who were trying to browse through undergraduate theses, and were hoping that by some miracle a magic light would shine upon one of the books, which will mean that our would-be topic is within that book. But of course, one can only dream so much. Some of us were lucky and were enlightened; but, for most of us, we were just as clueless as when we first entered the library.

Two weeks have already passed, after that day in the library, since our adviser gave us the assignment to work on our topic, and still no hope for me. I was starting to feel real anxious about it, then. Most of us are, and that’s the only good feeling I got back then, the idea of safety in numbers.

It was a Saturday when I thought of going through the theses collections on the following week to look for a probable topic once more. I was having a class back then. Nothing unusual, just our professor having his discussion, until he posted his question for the class. The question goes something like, do you think it would be easy for organizations to get used to the idea of the new social media, how will you make them embrace the idea; or, something to that effect. One of my classmates answered, yes it is easy for organizations to undergo certain changes. Then another raise of hand, and this time it was an opposing answer. The answer by that another hand said that it is not easy because there will be those (i.e a Lola VP) who may not easily accept changes such as the emergence of the new social media. Our professor supported this answer. He said that most people in an organization are not that open yet to the idea of advancing communication tools, and that it is also our job to make these people understand that the new social media are not as bad as it may seem to them. In fact, I agree that it’s something that organizations can use to their own advantage.

From that on, I didn’t stop pondering on the idea of organization and the role of communication technology within it. I admit that I am not one of those students you would catch drooling over info. tech stuff, gadgets, or others like that; but, I got hooked to the idea, nonetheless. The best part of it, I was also starting to get a picture of what topic I may want to venture on for my thesis. I started doodling on my notebook for concepts, words, and ideas.

I thought of how advance communication technology plays a significant role in most organizations today. It is already a given fact that a lot of organizations have already conceded to the need of a more convenient way of communicating among themselves. But then, the question once again came in, what about those employees who are not used to the idea of advancement. Primarily, because technology wasn’t that forwarded yet during their time. How do we make them adapt to these new media or tools. Then there’s also the presence of the other employees who are, on the other hand, well-familiar with these new media. Can we assume that they are a better asset to the company? With the differences among these employees, set by their knowledge on the new media, how does that affect the whole organization in general; or, on a lower level, how do they communicate or relate with one another, having said that they differ in the aspect of using the new media?

I left my question to that last idea, and smiled to myself. I thought of how from those I-don’t-know-if-these-make-sense idea I had, I can already formulate my thesis topic. Still a little lost with the concept, I didn’t stop workin on it. As soon as I got home, I started browsing through the net and looked for related topics. That was when I came across a study conducted abroad. The study shows how communication technology now is building a rift among employees, or better known as “technological gap” (as much as I like  to share few more information about technological gap, I’d just rather save it for my soon-to-be-submitted drafts next week). At the end of the day, satisfied with the information I got, I decided that I would pursue on it, given that my adviser would approve it, and she did.