#SOCIAL
MEDIA #TEENS #SELFIE #YOLO
#QUOTES
by
June Canicosa Hebrew
“I would like you guys to know that
I love you and I will miss you in case you don’t know yet but a part of me
would like to believe that you already know that. Most of you have always told me, “ I love you, Sir”, or “I missed you, Sir”
and I will surely miss the sound of your sweet greetings as I walk through the
hallways. But then again if we feel we
want to express how much we love and miss each other, our gadgets are just
right inside our pockets and all we’ve got to do is just to press on those
keypads our messages to each other and voila - we are connected. To add, whenever we want to know how each
other is doing, all we’ve got to do is to entertain ourselves with the “hashtag
selfie”, or “hashtag YOLO”, or “hashtag coolteenquotes” of those whom we miss.
Technology has brought us so far; in
fact, I don’t see many students enthusiastic to go to the library anymore since
a lot of information are now googleable.
Wherever we go, mobile phone companies have also found a way to bring
social media such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and many more right there on
our very fingertips. Along with this trend,
a lot of advertisers become more competitive as they take advantage of making
not just their products but also their ideas present wherever you go; the
future ahead of advertising is “social media marketing”. They will make sure you see them, you buy
them, and ultimately, you buy the new definition of life as how these
advertisers want you to be. Truth of the
matter is, all of us are their target.
As
much as we rejoice our connectedness because of technology, it also drives us
apart. It drives us apart not just from
each other but also from the everlasting principles technology just by itself
would not understand. It is scary. It scares me as a teacher – that the
influence of the advertising media makes you, teens define your lives as mere
hash tags.
Most
girls are now a generation of “hash tag selfies” and it makes me wonder, “Is it
really necessary for this generation to check through their camera phone how
they look every moment of the day? Is it really necessary for these kids to
make different kinds of facial expressions with their lips pouting, eyes bulging,
mouth opened? –
You
name it, I have never seen a face gets distorted so many times in a few seconds
for the sake of vanity or “likes” received in the social media. Researches also found how many teenagers feel
bad when after their hash tag selfies they don’t get too many “likes” in their social
media accounts. What scares me more is
right after the typhoon Yolanda and pictures of victims spread the Internet,
many teens couldn’t care less and their hash tag selfies seem to be, for them,
worth more than the pictures of the victims.
Another
scary thing is that the posted images of the devastated province and its
homeless victims get “TOO MANY” likes and I was wondering, “What was there to
like?” The meaning of “like” seem to be
changing as well.
And
then, there’s “hash tag YOLO”. Teenagers
rejoice doing stupid things and then they would be proud of them because well,
“You Only Live Once”; “YOLO, dude!”
I
have read over the Internet, “My brother was kicked out of his hotel because of
peeing from the balcony of his hotel room; hash tag Can’t Stop Laughing, and
hash tag YOLO.”
And
then there’s another one, “Exchanging seats while driving “hash tag YOLO”.
What
do you think happened after they exchanged seats? Luckily, they survived but it is not
unfathomable that teenagers because of the influence of too much social media
craze would take a picture of the ZERO’s in their exam and hide it under the
guise of “hash tag YOLO” with the effect of devaluing the essence of
education. In one of the high schools in
the United States, whenever they see “hash tag YOLO” the faculty and staff
become alert to see what’s going down or what pranks students would pull. Does these hash tags not scare you,
students? Parents? Teachers?
Lastly
there are those “hash tag cool teen quotes” that students use as an excuse to
be lazy – hash tag education does not define success.
“Sir,
why do we have to go to school? Even
Bill Gates, or Mark Zuckerberg didn’t finish college but they are wealthier
than most of us! They are successful!”
To
which I replied, “If you have the IQ or even the parcel of knowledge and
technical skills of Bill Gates or Mark Zuckerberg before they created Windows,
or Facebook, come back to me and then ask again that question.”
Hash
tag – “It’s the journey not the destination.”
“Sir,
I really did my best here. Can I get a
passing grade for effort?”
Hash
tag – “Character is more important than knowledge” or “EQ is more important
than IQ”.
“Sir,
don’t worry, even if I don’t know the answer to that, I have a good heart.”
With
the vast amount of information available within your reach, you tell me you
don’t know the answer to my simple questions.
Perhaps
you are busier selfie-ing, YOLO-ing, or tweeting your angst against the whole
wide world.
Einstein’s
version actually sounds like, “Imagination is more important than knowledge.”
But
then again, even Einstein was knowledgeable himself. I can only deduce that when Einstein said
this phrase, he knew he was knowledgeable and that his knowledge would be
useless if he didn’t use his imagination.
Therefore, he was not eliminating knowledge in the equation. When he said that quotation, there was
presupposition of the existence of knowledge before imagination could even make
sense.
Character
is more important than knowledge you guys would tell me to defend your failing
quizzes or tests, but let me ask you, “Would you even know the essence of
character without having checked the dictionary or without having read stories
discussing the concept of character? - Or having listened to lectures or team
building, retreats, and other venues for you to learn of such?
Character
and EQ are important; but your foundation, which is knowledge, and your ability
to think are equally important.
Do
not just fall into quotes thrown into your face by the popular psychology
promoted in social media. These quotes
are designed to make you feel temporarily good.
But soonest as the quote doesn’t feel appropriate for the situation
anymore, you will look for another quote to make yourself feel better.
With
all those said, what happens if the power goes out and the last battery
dies? How will you survive when you
can’t “hash tag selfie” anymore? Or “hash tag YOLO”? Will it make your life less meaningful that
you can’t see how many likes you get or how your other classmates do stupid
“YOLO” stuff? And how are you to make
yourself feel better when no quotes over the Internet seem to appeal to your
emotions anymore?
“I
fear the day that technology will surpass our human interaction. The world will have a generation of
idiots.” Albert Einstein allegedly said
that.
Students
seldom think these days. If they forget
the spelling, there’s spellcheck; grammar, grammar check; phone number,
cellphone. It seemed as if there are
ready answers for everything that now a mere use of their faculty seems to them
as an insurmountable effort – to spell words properly, or to even construct
correct sentences, or even memorize emergency numbers.
Have
Einstein’s fears been realized?
Actually
it’s not Einstein’s fear since no one has actually proven the quote came from
him. I believed it was from him. But after some research, I found out it
achieved its viral status with its dubious ascription riding in Einstein’s
popularity.
I
probably am becoming an idiot, too. And
it’s scary.
Our
dear MI students, I would be lying to you if I say that we have prepared you
enough for what’s out there. However in
my attempt to make you feel better about yourself, I could not say you are
prepared. Truth of the matter is no one
in this room is prepared. Each day we
wake up, we are unsure of what’s to come.
As a matter of fact when your parents gave birth to you, they were
scared as hell but excited greatly well; when it was your first day to school,
the teacher who received you was also scared as hell. When it was your teachers’ first day to
teach, they were also anxious, they didn’t know what to expect. They prepared themselves, yet at the end of
the day they tell themselves, “I could have been better prepared.
We
are never fully prepared. We make
ourselves believe we are ready because believing in such does not threaten our
self-esteem.
Allow
me to reiterate differently the M-I Way.
So
what then if you are not ready – that’s when you choose to selfie or to love
others; that’s when you choose to YOLO or to learn when your friends make you
choose between your schoolwork and gimmicks; that’s when you choose to believe cool
teen quotes or actually lead by being a person others want to follow.
Ultimately,
yes, we are never fully prepared for whatever the future shall throw on our way
but we can always choose to do what is right when no one is looking. Do this and you have passed the ultimate test
of all and you will be on your way to AWESOMENESS.
Thank
you for listening.
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