The Cancer of the Philippines
Throughout the years, there has been many ways to describe the Philippines and the Filipinos. We were known for having very strong ties with our families. Â We often refuse sending our lolo, lola, and eventually our parents to homes for the aged and opt to take care of them ourselves. Our loyalty to kin runs deep in our blood.Â
The world also knows us for our hospitality. Although there have been a lot of negative comments about how we Filipino’s are a country of domestic helpers and social workers coming out of the mouth of racists and comedians, these are actually testaments of the kindness we Filipino’s offer. The fact that Filipinos dominate and have been a constant demand in those markets further proves this point.
In our generation though, we have been dubbed as the social media capital of the world. It seems so surprising that a “third world” country could claim this title. It seems so natural for us to have all these social media accounts at the tip of our fingers that I wonder why other countries are not the same. Perhaps, it is because of or culture, our innate desire to be part of something bigger, a family to call our own which makes us search the net to find connections.
I would have imagined that having access to the world’s library would have made us smarter and more aware of the culture of others. I guess I was just naive. As a nation who is also known as being impressionable, we have succumbed to the trolls of the internet. Earning us labels like Peenoys from gaming communities and even one of the most racist people in Asia.Â
But these are all just hasty generalizations, these are just a select group of people they had encountered who happened to be Filipinos. Nevertheless, there are some truths to be found in the beliefs of others; these are just the extremes people see.Â
Too much of something is not a good thing. Religious extremists and feminazis do more harm to their cause than what they intend to. Similarly, our extreme loyalty to our family, our region, or our leaders causes too much division. It is this loyalty which obscures our vision of the truth. Everything becomes black and white and never gray. A politician can never have done something good at one thing and bad at another. It is always just Team A vs Team B, instead of Team Philippines. We tear each other down instead of thinking how we could improve.
Everyone has a reason why they believe in something; it is foolish to neglect another’s opinion simply because it contradicts your own. Let us take for example the media. People have been arguing about getting rid of media due to its bias especially if its bad news about their idols, yet they fail to notice that same media have also posted stories saying good things about their idols as well.Â
Those who are for the media argue that it is necessary to have a reliable source instead of those blog “news” sites who just posts every gossip they stumble upon. They find it irritating that those blogs keep warning people about false threats and that people continue to share posts made by these news sites over and over again when they should have lost credibility a long time ago.Â
Those blogs are basically the tabloids of this generation and they are outselling media. In panic or perhaps in desperate attempts to make themselves relevant to the public who use social media, the media has sunk into the level of those Buzzfeed posts, using clickbait Headlines such as “..... will make you Vomit!”  or “.... hates him for this”. The sad thing about this is it works; these are the posts which gets shared because people only read the headlines. They fail to read the article which rarely has relevance to the title.Â
It is these articles whose goals are to get more views and more shares which makes the media seem biased. And since it works so much, since we keep falling into this trap, they will repeat it over and over again.Â
The internet may be the best source of information but not everything in it is the best information. Learn how to filter out the truth from the fiction. Do not accept accept cliches and phrases as the truth. People have been recently saying that actions speak louder than words but our national hero would have said otherwise. Actions are necessary to prove your words, but the thoughts and ideals spread by words are what changes a nation.
