Normina Dipatuan @ndipatuan16 - Tumblr Blog

"Ideal Family"

Amor is one of the 3 videos in the Mother's Day Trilogy which shows a mother who goes through some great lengths in order to earn money and provide for her children.

Among the 3 videos of Kwentong Jollibee, it is the one that touched my heart the most because it reminded me of my parents who also tried different things so that they could let us go to school and provide our family needs. They didn't care how hard it would be and whatever other people would say as long as they knew that they were earning money in a good way and they did their best to take good care of us. At first also, I didn't understand my parents and then later on I've realized how much they've sacrificed for us. I tried to imagine myself being in their shoes and I thought that, I might not even be able to do what they did for us. They didn't care about their image anymore, they didn't care if there's nothing left for themselves as long as they could give everything they have for us, and I'm truly grateful for that.

And I think, I might not have an ideal family but atleast I have one of the best. I know most of us think that an ideal family is the family where every member understands each other, everyone is very close, and they all communicate and spend great times together. My family is somehow different from that. We live under the same roof but we barely talk to each other especially for us siblings. We have misunderstandings and we often quarrel with each other. But the great thing about my family, even though we speak less but the ties that bind us is stronger than any problem that comes along. We're not that close but we were there in everyone's dark times and even in the best times of our lives. We still help each other even how rude we can be sometimes. We stayed together and we will stay together despite not being able to understand every others one's personality. Most specially, even though we don't say it, I know that we all love and care for each other.

"Love Language"

I just took a test that would help me identify my language of love where I had to answer some questions and choose between the two choices which were quite difficult, because I felt like both choices are applicable to me so I just chose what I think is the most suitable answer for me. Actually, I never really tried to think deeper on what really is my love language and how I wanted other people to show their love for me. I mean, that question never really came out of my mind, but then, after I took this love language test, I came to realize that it's actually true that I've always wanted other people's undivided attention for me. When I want to talk to someone, I really want that person to lend all his/her ears on me even if I talk some nonsense. I want that person to show me that he/she is really interested as to what I'm saying by giving the same vibes as I am. Sometimes when I get used to spending some time with a group of people and they give me lots of attention, and then, someone suddenly came out and their attention swift to that person. Then, it really makes me upset like I'm being left out, because when I got used to a certain environment or situation, it really affects me when it suddenly changed. And I easily get used to something even if it only happened awhile ago, and there are times when I expect the same thing to happen again or I really hope that it will continue. That is why I easily get upset because I had so much expectations towards something good that happened to me. When I'm with someone, I just want that person to simply spend some time with me. I also don't want others to give me some advices unless I asked them to. I just want to feel that I'm being understood and that's all.

“Love”

Love has many meanings. It can mean affection towards someone else, love for God, love for the family, friends or even for yourself and love for some things that you really adore. Love is a set of emotions that we experience which could either give us happiness or pain. It is a feeling that everybody yearns for. Love is what binds us all together. And it is one of the biggest reasons why we continue to live and fight for the future. It is something worth living for. It is accompanied by honesty, loyalty, care, and trust. When you love someone you must learn to trust each other as a sign of your love and at the same time you must also stay honest and cherish the trust that you give to each other. Sometimes sweet lies hurt more than the painful reality. No matter how painful the truth is, it's better for you to tell it to the other person honestly. When you also start to love something, you must take good care of it and treasure it so that you won't lose what you value the most.

My first taste of love was on my birth. I had received lots of love from my parents since the day I was born and even on those days when my mother still carries me in her womb with love and tender. And up until now, their love for me have never change. At first I found it hard to understand them by the way they try to discipline us because I was still young to understand. But when I became more matured, I started to realize that everything they do is for us. They might also make some mistakes but it doesn't change the fact that they only tried to do things thinking what's best for us. Before, I often quarrel with my siblings because we disagree on many things. I actually hated them because of their bad attitudes, but as time passed by, I knew that despite the things we've gone through, they still love me and it's just hard to express our love for one another. We often make mistakes because we're not perfect, but still we learn to appreciate the good things that others do for us.

When I reached teenage, I started to develop affection towards a person. Those feelings made me fantasize romance but I didn't take it seriously and I focused more on my study. I wasn't also good in expressing my feelings that's why I only kept it to myself. I was also a very shy type person and I don't usually talk to other people that's why I wasn't able to tell anyone about it. After going through many experiences, affections for other people didn't matter to me anymore. I only have love for the different things that I enjoy like arts and music. I also started to explore and watch different kinds of drama series , Korean, Chinese, Japanese, and Thailand dramas. And now I'm so obsessed with anime series, and I even fall in love with the characters. My world only moves to those simple things that I love with no deep feelings that are unnecessary for me.

As I grow up, I experience different forms of love. I learned to love my family, relatives, and friends. I learned to love a stranger. I learned to love myself and other things. And of course, the highest form of love for me which is my love for God. And I think, love is really magical because it can't be explained by words alone and comes in different forms. It varies from different people. It's hard to understand but still we are able to feel it and create it. It's present everywhere and knows no bounds. And it is the most significant thing in life.

Pause for a Thought: Happiness

What makes you happy?

When are you happy?

There are so many things that can make me happy even the simplest thing in life. But the major things that makes me happy are my family, friends, and things that I love like music, art, and watching my favorite drama and anime. Even the regular days that I spend with my love ones make me happy that's why I often take pictures of the different events and things that happen in my life as a remembrance because I always love to look back at those simple, calm, ang happy days.

I am happy when I'm able to do the things that I love and when I can go out especially to a very peaceful place. I am also happy when I could spend some time alone. I am happy by just watching other people have fun even without joining them. But what makes me happy the most is when I have a peace of mind, it's actually one of the things that I always pray for.

4 Exercises to Test How Fast Your Brain Is

I had fun doing these activities and it's quite tricky for me which really helps the brain to do a multitasking. The hardest part for me was when I had to switch both of my fingers from ok sign to peace sign. It really requires lots of practice for you to master it. Also when I had to draw 2 different figures at the same time. I tried it and I ended up drawing the same shape. It was hard but it was really quite fun. I guess I will practice doing these more often to help me enhance my brain.

Which Side of Your Brain is Dominant?

While doing the activity, I was really curious and excited to know if my expectation would match the result of the test. And yes, as I expected, it's my right brain that is dominant which tells more about my personality. People with a dominant right side are perceived as people of art. They recognize faces very easily and can read you and your emotions like a book. They have extraordinary intuition and imagination, finding inspiration in music and art. They often daydream and fantasize about anything and everything, behave emotionally and express themselves through their creative hobbies. All these things are true to me since I do really love art and music since I was young, and I love to imagine things that brings me to another world, a world of my own. This test gave explanation on why I behave like this and how I see things which make sense to me.

Pause for a Thought: Stress

What situation do you consider as positive stress? Are you aware of your tipping point when it comes to stress?

When I hear the word stress, I used to think that it's all bad for me. Not so long ago when I learned that these things could actually strengthen me and improve my abilities.

Some of the things I consider as positive stress are family events like reunion which we do every year, my studies or being one of the honor students. I always worry everytime we'll have a family reunion because I always think about how I'm going to get along with them especially with my cousins since they always bother me about it. Well, speaking about my studies, of course it's hard because there are lots of requirements but the point is it's actually for my own good since it will prepare me for my future. While being an honor student gives me the feeling of having a greater responsibility and expectations from others, still, I couldn't let go of the thought of being an honor student since it also gives me happiness and pride everytime I achieve something. These things may give me stress and worries but these motivate me and I'm still able to cope up with it all along. I do worry at first on how I'm going to handle these things but in the end, it satisfies me especially when things all worked out and it actually improves my performance and coping abilities. In contrast, the things that I consider as negative stress are the expectations from my family and other people, losing something important to me, being neglected, having a hard time with my sleep, self-conscious, having a conflict with someone, and also playing games since there are actually lots of toxic people in online gaming. These things lessen my confidence, and give me fear about losing and being rejected. These make me think a lot and affect my mental health.

I'm actually not that aware of my tipping point and I actually end up doing the things that originally cause my stress. Sometimes I do things to satisfy myself but things got out of control and get messed up. But in the end, I still try my best to cope up with everything and things will get back to normal.

Pause for a Thought: Challenges in Life

What are the challenges that you face and how can you manage them?

Life is full of challenges that could either make you or break you. If you pass all these challenges, it will make you stronger and shape you into a better person. It will help you in the future especially in making decisions and handling different situations. But if you aren't strong, ready, and brave enough to face these challenges, then it will break you instead.

As an adolescent, there are lots of challenges that I am facing. As I grow older, lots of changes happen in me and around me. There are many responsibilities that I have to do as a daughter, a sister, a student, a friend, a citizen, and as an individual. I have encountered many people and some of them became my friends which also increase the peer pressure as well as my families expectations. I had to balance my time to all of my friends especially when almost all of them seek for my attention. There were days when my faith and patience were tested. Sometimes I'll have fights with my siblings because of some misunderstandings. I was also challenged financially. There are days that I lack out of money and I have to spent every peso wisely. And most of the time, I would have problems with my studies. The subjects became harder and I have to spend more time in studying and doing my requirements. All these things also tested my emotions and my mental capacity. My life cycle slowly changes. Sleeping became a hard thing to control which also made my body weaker and affected my mental ability. Many temptations also arose which tested my self-contol. Because of too many things that happens in my life, time seems to move fast. Day and night is like a blink of an eye and sometimes I forget to take time for the things that are important to me.

Before, I used to run away from all these challenges because I was afraid of facing them, but then I learned that we can never hide from all these problems that is why I started accepting it and face it with all my courage and strength. I started to take good care of myself and learn to control my emotions. I tried to understand every person and I didn't mind other's expectations. I mean, I just let everyone say and do whatever they want. I didn't let my mood shift based on other people's actions that are insignificant. I started to expect nothing and accept everything. I learned to accept failures and set my priorities first before anything else. I take things step by step and not to force anything. I became more calm and learn to let go of my anger and to forgive others. I just tried to see the bright side of life.

Some of us always hope for a life without problems which doesn't make us grow. No one has a life that is only full of happiness and pleasure. Life is bound with challenges that we must face, but the real challenge is how we face and overcome them. It was never meant to be easy and it is filled with countless and tiring ups and downs. We must learn how to move forward and learn from these experiences and not be defined by it.

Pause for a Thought: Adolescent Stage

02|19|21

How would you describe your current situation as an adolescent?

Is it a period of stress or are you slowly strengthening your identity?

Becoming an adolescent is not easy as it was before. There are different challenges that I have to face alone and decisions that I need to decide on my own. In my younger years I didn't mind about the future because I only depended on my parents, but now that I am older, I had to decide for myself and be independent because I am not the kid anymore who only thinks about playing around and always hides behind my mother's skirt. The environment and people around me affect me in a different way than it used to. When I was young, everything seems like a blurred photo that is only focused on the small things in life that a child would usually think of, but now, things became clearer and I became more aware of the things that are happening around me. Everyday is a new experience for me. At this point of my life, I feel like I am not a child anymore but also not a grown up yet. I feel matured in the way I understand things but immature on how I react to it. Being a grown up includes lots of responsibilities. Responsibility as a student, a daughter, a sister, a friend, and as an individual. Everyday is a challenging and stressful day but each day is also an improvement of my character and personality. Every storm that I survive makes me a stonger person. These challenges are a part of my development. Yes it's hard especially when dealing with my emotions but with faith and with the help of my friends and family, I am able to overcome things which molds me into a better person.

“Be Mindful”

02|18|21

My Takeaway:

Today's lesson made me realized that we must be aware and conscious of ourselves, of our actions, of the things we say, and the decisions that we make. Be mindful of yourself and manifest a beautiful mindset.

I also learned the different stages of development and the different factors that affect our development. First stage is the Holistic Development. I was able to understand the difference between holism and dualism. Second stage is the Physiological Development which states that the physical attributes of a person are a work in progress and to develop this physical attributes, we must learn to take good care of our body. Third stage is the Cognitive Development which includes 2 aspects, the cognition and attitude. Fourth stage is the Social and Emotional Development where it states that a person is born with the needs of belonging. You must be able to balance your intelligence quotient and emotional quotient. Fifth stage is the Spiritual Development which includes the values and beliefs of a person. And the last stage is the Psychological Development which is the growth and development of a person's cognitive, emotional, and social skills.

I also learned how to integrate our thoughts, feelings, and behavior by also taking good care of our body and mind.

Pause for a Thought: A Complex Person

02|18|21

Have you ever met a person who seems to be so complex that it is difficult to fully understand him or her?

What makes this person a complex character?

Yes, I have met a person who seemed to be so complex and that was the old me. I used to be so complex that sometimes even I, couldn't understand what I truly feel. And it drove me crazy because I couldn't help myself. I asked myself what I really want but I didn't know what I really wanted. I would suddenly feel sad for no reason. I just felt so down and I didn't know why. I also used to get confused about many things especially when making a decision for myself. It seemed that I didn't have a direction and I didn't know where I am supposed to go. That's why when I hanged out with other people I always asked for their opinions and I always let them decide but most of the time I didn't even know if I wanted to go with them or not. I also used to push other people away, telling them that it's fine and when I was already left alone, I would then feel lonely and feel bad with them for leaving me alone. I always love to play games but I get bored when I already started to play. I had so many motivative thoughts in my mind but my heart just couldn't understand it. I just had these strange feelings in me. It's not that I didn't want to be happy but despite how hard I tried, I just couldn't bring myself to be happy. My life was actually quite fine that time. I had no problem with my family, I had many friends who really supported me and I also had a good academic scores. Everything was okay but still things seemed to be sad and blue.

Others would say that happiness is a choice but it's not always the situation. It's easy to say things and it sounds easy when you listen to it but it's actually hard to do it because there are days when you really can't help it but cry and feel sad. And what's the hardest thing is that even how hard you try to help yourself, you still can't when you really don't even know what the exact reason is. It seems that I had these 4 personalities that kept on contradicting each other.

But other people could also be complex in a way that we lie about our true emotions and we say things opposite to what we truly feel and it makes things more complicated because we feel disappointed and get mad when we don't get the answers that we want which is a result of not being honest with our feelings. Sometimes we'll tell others that we are fine when we're really not. We will say that we don't want it even if we do. We push them away but then we want them to stay. We usually say the exact opposite of what we really mean because most of the time we are afraid of failures and rejection or maybe because we have too much pride within us or we want the other person to understand even without us telling them.

"Forgiveness"

by Matthew West

This song is about the amazing story of forgiveness. It's about a woman who forgive the man who killed her daughter. This woman realized that all the hate was hurting her more, and she decided to let go, to forgive, with all her heart and help the man whom once she hated so much. This impressive story was the inspiration for Christian singer Matthew West and he wrote a song dedicated to her and telling her story.

“It's the hardest thing to give away

And the last thing on your mind today

It always goes to those who don't deserve

It's the opposite of how you feel

When the pain they caused is just too real

Takes everything you have to say the word”

One of the hardest things to do is to forgive because we can't let go of the grudge. Most of us want to take a revenge or make the other person feel the pain that we've felt. We sometimes feel that it's not fair and we want them to feel guilty. Sometimes forgiveness is the last thing that we think of and we do not want to do at all because it's really hard to forgive that sometimes it seems impossible but still we give it to those who doesn't deserve it even if it's really against of what we feel, not for them but for ourselves. We tend to gather all our strength and step onto our pride and ego just to be able to say the words, “I forgive you”.

“It flies in the face of all your pride

It moves away the mad inside

It's always anger's own worst enemy

Even when the jury and the judge

Say you've got a right to hold a grudge

It's the whisper in your ear saying set it free”

Forgiving needs a lot of courage to set aside your pride. You have the right to resent someone or hate someone for what he did but holding onto the pain, anger and resentment will hurt you more than the person who've wronged you. When you forgive you would feel lighter and overwhelmed. It will give you peace and happiness because hate is another way of holding onto that person and keeps you from moving on.

“Show me how to love the unlovable

Show me how to reach the unreachable

Help me now to do the impossible

Forgiveness, forgiveness

Help me now to do the impossible”

Forgiveness is also another form of love. Without forgiveness there's no love and without love there's no forgiveness. It may seem impossible but when you learn to accept the reality, learn to let go, and see the life ahead you then you will slowly learn to forgive.

“It'll clear the bitterness away

It can even set a prisoner free

There is no end to what its power can do

So let it go and be amazed by what you see through eyes of grace

The prisoner that it really frees is you”

For you to forgive, you must take away the bitterness and let love conquer everything. When you hold onto the grudge, you are imprisoning yourself because you can't let go of the pain and hatred and you are stucked in the past. That is why forgiving is setting your heart free from all the hate. It is the key towards true healing.

“I want finally set it free

Show me how to see what your mercy sees

Help me now to give what You gave to me”

In the end, we will be judged by the Almighty not in terms of what we've done with ourselves, but to what we've done for other people. That's why we must learn to forgive like how He forgives us and learn to love like how He loves us.

Pause for a Thought: Knowing Thyself

02|17|21

Our experiences helped us shape ourselves into the person that we are today. But there are so much more that we don't know about ourselves because there's still a lot of rooms for improvement and lot of things for you to know. There's much more in you that you can give. And as time passes by, we could develop into a much better person, or maybe, one day we could suddenly change from someone we know to someone we don't.

But the question is, do I really know myself? Well yes, I know a lot about myself which might be hard for other people to understand but there’s probably more things within me that I am yet to discover.

When I was younger, I barely socialize with other people. I only talk to them if necessary. I always keep my feelings with me and I don't share it even to the closest person to me. I was quite focused with my studies and strived hard to be on top and reach everyone's expectations. But as I grow older, my body slowly changes as well as my personality and perspectives in life. Before, I always love to work physically and play around, but when I turned 16, my body became weaker and I always feel tired and sleepy, well maybe because I don't go out that much and have an exercise. Before, I could still manage 1-2 days of no sleep but now I can't even control it which gives me a hard time in my studies and in doing other stuffs. At the same time, my perceptions in life also changed and the people around me made a great contribution to it. I started to talk more often and open up to other people. I was finally able to accept failures and understand that not at all times I am on the top. I will meet other people who are much smarter, beautiful, and talented than me and it's okay. Them being much beautiful doesn't mean that they are much better than you. Them being smarter doesn't also mean that they know more than you. Everyone has something that others don't have which could be much valuable than beauty or money. Still, we are all unique in our own ways and for me, I have enjoyed much already and appreciated those days that many people admired me. Maybe it's not my turn yet and this is the time for me to learn more and develop myself.

I used to be a competitive person in a way that I forgot how to enjoy things because I always see things as a competition. But then I realized that we should not compete with other people because by the time you thought that you are already better than them is the time when you stop growing. Instead compete with yourself and continue striving for a better you.

Before, I always cry every time my grades would go down, but now, I just laugh on it and try to motivate myself to do better next time. I also stopped crying for losing something or someone important and about other people who can’t understand me. I learned that not everyone would understand you. Sometimes even your self don’t, that’s why we must stop expecting others to. In that way, we could be less disappointed. Because you know, we have different ways on how we perceive the different things in life and we understand things based on that level of perception. It’s really not bad or sad to be alone. What really makes us feel lonely is when we are surrounded by wrong people. The more I get matured, the more I learned that it’s fine to live a life that others don’t understand.

I also used to think that I want to go back to my old self but I couldn’t. I then realized that I quite love how I am now. I have gone through many challenges and struggles which made me stronger and understand more what I really want, what’s really important, and what life really is. And that is living with a purpose and a goal. When you have a goal, you also have a direction and you know what you really want to do before you left this world. Sometimes we are so focused on the small things in life and want so many until we forget what really matters in life. Time, health, and our love ones are the most important things in life. Our love ones and the people around us are the reason why we continue to live because we cannot live only by ourselves that’s why we must not be self-centered and learn to value each and everyone.

I also started becoming more interested about my religion. I felt like it’s time for me to give more attention in getting myself closer to God and prioritize Him over anything else. I just stopped forcing things. I realized that it’s okay not to be called pretty, smart or talented for once. As long as I still feel loved and enjoy myself. It’s not bad to live a simple life than trying so hard to maintain that good image in their eyes which make things feel more toxic. You know? It’s normal to feel tired sometimes as long as you don’t give up.

As I grow older, I learned my strength and weaknesses which helps me in making my decisions. I also learned to love different things. I started watching dramas and anime which makes me forget the reality for a while and help me recover with stress and negative emotions. These things thought me life lessons that inspired me to live my life to the fullest and always seize the day. Despite all the bad things in life, we must not forget to enjoy the present while we can and leave the worries till tomorrow. Being worried won’t change what already happened or what will happen in the future. I just let things happen on its own and follow where the wave leads me.

After everything, I felt like I became more aware of myself and that is by not trying to complicate things. If you can’t understand it then stop thinking about it. There are really things that are beyond our power. If you can’t have what you want then stop wanting what you can’t have. My experiences in life thought me lots of lessons that could help me face the future ahead of me.

“The Good and the Bad: How Social Media Affected Me as a Gen Z Individual”

Social media means the websites or application that enable users to create and share content or participate in social networking. It became one of our medium of communication, we communicate and share the same interest with others. It is now very popular in our generation or in the modern world. Since the evolution of technology became more advance which caused the emergence of many advance things like the social media. Social media became very popular especially to us the Generation Z because it meets most of our interest. Generation Z, also known as the iGeneration, iGenners, GenZ, and Generation Now, consists of those born in the mid-1990s through the late 2010s. Historical events important for this generation have influenced their perception of safety as well as how they interact with others. This generation has lived with the ramifications of this event, such as the perceived norm for public safety and societal trust. That Generation Z, the youngest generation, is the best equipped to navigate social media and technology and can build stronger relationships online but lack the social skills that the other generations have, making it harder to read in-person social cues. The purpose of social media is to connect with friends and family around the world and share information and pictures via website or app. Nowadays the Generation Z are more onto technologies for sharing information, listening to music, and for communication. Moreover, this generation is more advance than the past generations. In the past, it is less interactive. Before we used to write letters to give message to someone, use telephone to call someone and people are communicating person to person. The Good effects of Social media to Gen Z is it breeds positive communities and experiences which can generate and then become led by influencers. But today advanced technology has been the most commonly used by youth. Like for instance, children now are more into using technologies to play fun games instead of playing toys, also technology makes our life easier. Like for example, ordering online using the internet, communicating and selling products. But at the same time people are also lacking of physical activities, being really shy to see in person and also can get sick because of just staring straight to the monitor. It really affects us on how we live our daily lives.

Well, some people say that social media is good for everybody and others say the opposite effect. Social media has affected us by the way we think and the way we act. For instance sharing of information. It is good to share information but still we can't tell if it is true or false information. It can lead us to flame wars just because of false information. The thing to do is to check if the source of this information is credible or reliable. That's why we can't tell if it is bad or good. The bad effects of Social media for Gen Z is no longer a space for consuming and connecting; it has become a space for the formation of movement and protest. Young people are demanding a voice in decisions that affect their lives, and social media is helping them amplify it. People who are addicted to social media may experience negative side effects such as eye strain, social withdrawal or lack of sleep and stress. If you spend your time researching problems or arguing with people, you may experience stress, which can have a negative impact on your health. The social media also affects us as a Gen Z individual through good ways because it helps us to communicate to our family, friends, and classmates. Making us more updated on the current events that are happening around the globe. Social media also helps us on this pandemic through surfing because most of us have nothing to do during this quarantine making us bored. Some content that I can see encouraged me to be myself and also help others that needed help, some good content that can be seen in the social media helped us relieve our stress and make us happy by watching or reading some good contents in social media. But somehow it also raised our insecurities because we can see other contents that can really affect you on how you see yourself and also it changes our vision about people that are on social media because we somehow judge them by the way they act or look in social media than in person. Social media may have a good and bad things that can really affect you to be who you are and how you see others but always remember this no matter how you see contents that can really affect, you must be an information literate person to properly analyze it to know if it is really true or not and also be yourself, don't let any contents in social media affect who you really are. Always choose what you read and post on the internet.

“The Gap in Digital Divide”

The digital divide is the discrepancy existing between different demographics on access to information technology. In this context, information technology encompasses the internet, computers, telephones, and televisions a menace which we should address as persons, communities, nations, and the world as a whole. The gap between the rich and the poor is likely to be narrowed. The poor, especially, will learn better ways of empowering themselves and the rich will learn the way they know. The digital divide also captures the ability of different populaces to leverage the internet, and various gadgets. Every student needs adequate access to instructional resources and support services in order to achieve academically. Nowhere is this truer than in the area of instructional technology. It's good to tackle first about the problems of poverty, low education levels and poor infrastructures in order to execute the following solutions: Increase affordability, empowering users, improve the relevance of online content, address gender gap in online access, and internet infrastructure development. The school and government should make sure to it first that we are hundred percent ready.

We all know that we are at the amidst of the pandemic and we are all starting online class but some of the students that are attending online class doesn’t have enough data or signal and also a fully functioning gadgets to properly access it. Some students also stop schooling for a while because they don’t even have the equipments like internet connection and gadgets to be able to qualify to attend the online class. There is an alternative for online class like modular class but this is so risky because the students or their parents must go to the school to get the module and it has a high chance for them to be infected with virus especially if their location have lots of cases of Covid 19, even if you are so careful you might not know that your area was already infected because the symptoms doesn’t manifest immediately. As a student we wanted to raise attention or awareness about the very wide digital gap that we are experiencing right now. Our president was supposed to declare academic freeze but the DepEd secretary of education Leonor Briones insisted that we should continue the classes this year. So that is why we are experiencing digital gap right now because most of the schools like private schools are starting the classes through online class and some or most of the students aren’t even prepared for it. That is why some of them stopped schooling for this school year. We would really recommend that the government should donate some gadgets for online class especially for those students that don’t have it, for them to continue their schooling this year or declare the academic freeze this year and also provide money or finances for the teachers that are also affected by it. Also in order to bridge the gap of digital divide, we must improve the digital literacy capacities so that there’s no limit of age on using digital technologies, it’s either digital natives or digital immigrants. In addition, they will enjoy the benefits of digital literacy. Some of the benefits of using the digital technology, is to get information easier. Like for example, you need to find a motel to check in but you are a digital immigrants, with digital literacy you find a better and easier way to check-in in that particular motel. It is also a great idea for the students and parents to try saving some money for them to buy technologies that are needed in school. We students could also try to speak to the government and the government should also hear the voices of its people. By the help of the government the small voice of a student could possibly be heard.

“The Setbacks of Piracy”

In our modern society, piracy is one of the biggest problem in the production industry. It is one of the big question of many production company, copyright holders and the government. How do we overcome the illegal or unauthorized reproduction of someone else’s work? We know that piracy is the act of stealing someone’s work or an unauthorized duplication of certain works which is sold at a lower price. Pirated products are pretty popular to us like the CD also known as Compact Disc which you can buy in some parts of the public market or it is being sold by a wandering seller. Most of us didn't even know that it is piracy or selling pirated products are illegal since many of us just buy or sell it. Piracy exist since the old times like the pirates attacking and robbing a ship at the sea, or stealing someone else's intellectual property and now we are in the modern times it changes too. Using or making of anything that is protected by the copyright law even if you don't know that it is protected it can still be called piracy. Using another’s work is quite similar to plagiarism but piracy is more on redistribution and profiteering. Having a patented marks on one's work or inventions may protect the individuals rights by strictly enforcing the intellectual property of the country. Movies are protected by copyright. They can’t be copied without a permission. Also it is not just movies that are protected. Photos, books, graphic designs, music, and all sorts of other creative works are protected by copyright for many decades after their creation. Despite the situation many people are not aware of the law and thinks that piracy is victimless and many of them also entertains the use of pirated works. Because of this belief, others just neglect the law such as the Republic Act No. 8293, an act prescribing the Intellectual Property Code and Establishing the Intellectual Property Office. But many do not know about the consequences of this piracy. Users of pirated software could be exposed to software viruses and other computer malwares, corrupt disk or defective software. There could also be lack of technical support and ineligibility for software upgrades offered to properly licensed users. The industry is also very much affected. The world loses billions of dollars annually due to piracy. They argue that piracy has a negative effect on the economy by reducing sales in music/movie industries and many other facets. It’s not just copyright holders that are affected. Individuals making use of pirated materials are subjected to fines for copyright.

There are many setbacks of piracy like the copyright laws that are implemented to protect a certain work or invention of a certain person if he or she registered it to have a copyright protection. The Republic Act No. 8293 also known as the Philippine Copyright Law is one of the major laws that are implemented to protect a copyrighted material to prevent it from being pirated.

Anti-Camcording Act of 2010 is also one of those laws because the film industry has a major problem with piracy since people are bringing cameras to record a film and then transferring it to a CD to sell it in a cheaper price. The IPOPHL reiterated that creating awareness on intellectual property (IP) rights in the public sector will effectively deter incidents of piracy country. It is also stated under the Cybercime Law that acquiring any digital copy of any copyrighted material is now punishable by a fine between Php 200,000 to Php 500, 000 and six to 20 years in prison. With this increasing problem regarding privacy, people must be aware of the different concerns and issues to help lessen the use of pirated works. Viewers that watches pirated videos must be educated. Because if there will be no users or viewers of the pirated works there will be no sense of making pirated videos if no one will watch it. On the other hand, the producers of pirated materials will have no choice but to stop creating another one because their sales will decrease. This could result to the decrease of the amount of pirated materials. If the consumers themselves would not help it would be hard to fight back piracy. So we ourselves must know what to do and discourage the use of pirated materials and help our economy.

Trending Blogs

Recently Viewed Blogs

Normina Dipatuan