TRINIDAD, Jonathan T.

TRINIDAD, Jonathan T.

2010-04313

#FutureMediaPH

Reaction on The Future of Media – Politics/Social Advocacy Track

The Future of Media is a series of forum on politics and social advocacy, technology, lifestyle, and digital marketing featuring a panel of different iconic personalities for each track of the conference. The one we attended discussed how the current technology and media is used in promoting causes and its impacts on the organizations and the community as a whole.

Throughout the discussion, it has been established that the presence of new media with its wide reach, real-time updates and accessibility, it can be considered to be a very powerful tool for promoting causes and informing people. It has become an avenue for some issues and topics that are underexposed by the “mainstream” media (e.g. TV, radio, newspaper, etc.). With the internet and the multiple social networking sites, we can let more people be informed and be aware with these issues for them to get involved. However, with this great amount of power comes great responsibility. Ideas and details that can be found in the internet is not always correct and reliable. Not all people use the power of connecting and reaching others for good; there are instances wherein false information, hoaxes, and scams are made. It is our responsibility as users of this technology to verify and make sure that what we share to others and what we support is true and is for the greater good.

New media has become a part of our daily life and has become a part of how we interact with the society. It is a powerful tool for communication and spreading information. It could be used to spark change for the better and make us better citizens of our nation. One of the most moving statements made during the discussion was made by Ms. Mae Paner: “be comfortable with the word ‘revolution’”. We must not be afraid of change, we must rise up to the challenge of whatever we think is for the greater good.

TRINIDAD, Jonathan T.

2010-04313

The Life of Mammals

Reaction on The Life of Mammals: Social Climbers and Food for Thought

The Life of Mammals is a series of documentaries discussing various behaviors of mammals. For the class, we watched two episodes – Social Climbers and Food for Thought. Both episodes featured primates’ way of living.

In Social Climbers, it showed how different monkeys interact with each other for survival. It was remarked that they are the most social animals around. Not only that they live in groups, they do a lot of activities together. Another awesome thing is that there are monkeys that exhibit interspecies cooperation. Most activities featured involved food. They showed food and material sharing and gathering among the group. Another cooperative activity featured was for defense against predators, some team up to create a loud noise to fool their predator and some team up with other species in order to create a strategic warning system. They also featured a species where they group up to defend their tree against another group of the same species. The episode also noted the presence of hierarchy and social order among some species. The social ranking plays a very crucial role in mating the females of the group. Some monkeys can climb up the social ladder through social activities such as grooming and speech while others through battle.

In Food for Thought, it featured some of the ways mammals gather food and how they adapt through time. This episode featured the use of tools, migration, and more. It showed how we evolved in order to survive. It also showed the advantages of bipedalism and what circumstances pushed them to evolve that way.

Overall, Social Climbers highlighted brain size while Food for Thought highlighted bipedalism. The documentary related brain size to how large our social group can have. They said that brain size is proportional to how large our group can be and Mr. Sonido also shared a supplementary thought that for humans, we can have up to 150 real and meaningful connections. As for bipedalism, it showed that it is the more efficient than moving with four legs and it allows us to use tools. The documentary shows how even though these characteristics may be considered minor, it has a very large impact on how we live today. It allowed us to advance and evolve to where we are today. However, due to advancements, it was also shown how it negatively affected our environment. The host’s parting words struck me as he said that we should also work not only for our own survival but also for the survival of the environment. And this I think is the most important idea we can take away from watching the documentary.

TRINIDAD, Jonathan T.

2010-04313

John Nash and his best friend

Reaction on A Beautiful Mind

A Beautiful Mind is biographical film based on the life of John Nash – a mathematician and a Nobel Prize awardee for Economics. The film featured his university life as a student and teacher and also his life as a husband and father. It also showed his struggle with schizophrenia and how it affected the people around him.

Schizophrenia is a condition wherein the person sees delusions. John Nash was diagnosed with this disorder. According to the film, he imagined he had a roommate and a best friend during his time as a student at the university. And through the years, we also thought he was working with the government in decoding stuff. He was diagnosed long after he experienced these events and these distorted his perception of reality. Even though these were just delusions, it didn’t really became a burden to his scientific career until he thought that his life is threatened. It was deduced that these images manifest when he is stressed, his imagine best friend became his safe haven but the secret agent delusion became problematic for him and his family. Because of this, we has given medication to suppress these thoughts, however the medication also altered his way of thinking in terms of mathematics and problem solving. In the end, he decided not to take in the medication in order to return to his true passion in life which is mathematics and problem solving and continue life trying to learn how to suppress his delusions in which in the end, he ultimately learned how to ignore them and live a normal life. As he learned how to ignore these delusions, he continued his research and his life in the academe.

In the film, it showed how remarkable Nash’s way of thinking is. It was very awesome to see him solve problems mathematically and how great his pattern recognition is. His struggle coming up with a thesis topic and seeing that the main idea for this was because of a girl was entertaining. The film showed how great of a person John Nash is; being a very talented mathematician and being a “survivor” of schizophrenia. His passion for the pursuit of knowledge is very inspiring, he would rather live a life with a very complicated delusions and distractions than a “normal” life free of these complications. In the film, his enthusiasm and curiosity for problem solving and pattern recognition even on some trivial matters (like the pigeon) is also really something people must emulate from his life. We should live curious and never stop learning.