“Social media has become so toxic these days” laments Inquirer columnist Ambeth Ocampo on his piece today. It seems to be true for a lot who are shocked by this new experience of winning and losing friendships online on the bases of political positions taken.
Ocampo’s solution is to “take a break from social media”. Others are calling for people to be a bit more reserved or “mindful” about what they post on their timelines. At the extreme end, some self-righteous voices call on people whose opinions they consider to be annoying to delete their account.
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Fortunately there are some youthful voices who provide better perspective to challenge teh views of old farts under whose watch the Philippines ran aground. For her part, columnist Kay Rivera, also on her Inquirer piece today begs to differ to those who ask why one needs to care about these “toxic” politics and other things supposedly outside of our spheres of influence…
I say go ahead and care, and go ahead and post. Post impassioned rants about SM malls and the destruction of trees, post essays about male privilege, post about the victims of martial law; be concerned about what happened in the past and be invested in what lies in store for the future of our country. I do not think that millennials were made to stand idly by, to be passive consumers of news; I think we were made to participate in the discussion, and have the capacity to actually lead it. If youth is not the time to be passionate about things, then what is?
Social media, after all, remains what it is — a platform for sharing stuff and democratising the power to reach a big audience. What emerges out of that capability is only now being understood. But to dismiss it as a “toxic” world just because we do not like the manifestation of that power it accords to its users misses the point of this new world we are in.
benign0 is the Webmaster of GetRealPhilippines.com.
Be “Yourself” enough to have an opinion,
Be “Wise” enough to recognise a difference of opinion,
Be “Mature” enough to find a way for co-existence.
So I am “toxic”, because I post frequently on the social media ?
If you don’t like what you are reading. Then, don’t read the things posted on the social media.
It is as simple, as that; no writer, blogger, or nuisance troll, put a gun on your head, to read what he/she had posted on the social media.
The thing that you are calling , social media : “toxic”, means , that you enjoy reading what are posted in the social media.
What a stupid girl !
Yan ang hirap sa mga taga media. sila lang ang may karapatang manira. pag sila na ang tinira, suko naman. Ngayon, you are reaping what you sow. You are being measured by the measurement that you use.
That’s the problem with people in general. They want everything that offends them to be removed from their sight. That’s one reason people become terrorists. But if one has real tolerance, they will leave alone everything that’s “offensive” in their lives and just go about their business. That should be the essence of true democracy. Or true freedom, I’d say.
every day
Thanks your good site
It is as simple, as that; no writer, blogger, or nuisance troll, put a gun on your head, to read what he/she had posted on the social media.
As a personal matter, whatever opinions one may have is generally of little importance to me; however, if we decide to silence dissenting opinions, how are we any different from, say, Stalinists?
Hmm… I’m not really going to trash Sir Ocampo’s statement; he has a point. Disconnecting once in a while can prove to be healthy for those who tend to be too fixated and stop their lives over internet comments (ehh, not a good thing at all, but we gotta accept that there really are some people like that). However, Mr. Ignacio, you also make a good point; “toxicity” is, indeed, an exercise of free speech and is not the problem that people make it out to be. Disconnecting cannot reduce the amount of supposed “toxicity” (which just another term for ‘things I don’t like’); they will still be there even though we won’t see it momentarily while at break.