Conscience

Jean-Jacques Rousseau said that "human nature is essentially good". 

I went to sleep last night with a bad taste in my mouth. I had just seen a post promoting a candidate's virtual session. There's nothing wrong about promoting an event, but this one was really unethical. It was done on a city mayor's page and the official public information page of the city. Of course, the admin immediately deleted the posts, but the damage was done already. It disappointed me a lot because I really appreciated the efforts of my city government to provide updates. Now I'm questioning whether they should be trusted. 

It's not new to me. I've had a lot of firsthand bad experiences. I even picked up a call that was a death threat for my Dad when he and Tito Ed were cleaning up PNCC. I was in high school then and we were immediately sent away. The first time I asked about corruption was in sixth grade. I asked my parents how come a classmate was getting PhP200 as her daily allowance and I was just getting PhP5. When I grew up I saw the grown-up version, even in other countries. 

It always makes my stomach churn whenever I encounter these things. My Dad though taught us to do what's right. I remember asking my Kuya during our last Japanese buffet dinner before the pandemic, "How come I always encounter these things?" He said it happens because Papa God knows I can help make things right. While some would be skittish about righting things I always pushed to make things right even though it oftentimes got me in trouble. That was the only way to stop my stomach from churning. 

The election fever is upon us. I realized last night that I probably need to lay off from reading too much stuff online. It's giving me a lot of stress and has been affecting my health. I also realized there's so much fake news and it's adding to unwanted stress. 

Some of the purveyors of fake news and trolls are probably in it because of need. I do hope and pray that they realize that what they are doing is wrong. There are other means to earn a living. And for the mastermind to grow a conscience. What good is power if you acquire it in the wrong manner? What good is wealth if you steal it? What good does it do if you don't have peace in your heart? And for the fanatics, what good does it do for you to support someone who doesn't have a conscience?

#BeKind #StayHome

Don't Fall for Fake

It's really worrying to see so much fake news being shared online. I took a look at one of the Filipino groups here in Singapore last night and was really sad to see that members were actively sharing fake news. I got curious and took a look at the profiles and pages. The pages they were sharing were indeed peddlers of fake news. The sadder thing about it is the page had over 45K followers! 

Most of those sharing fake news were domestic helpers. I used to do a lot of talks about how to protect yourself online for teachers and students. I realized that this should be extended to more groups of people who go online. Government agencies who deploy workers abroad should probably include a session about it. If you want to help someone protect themselves online, you can use the "Be Internet Awesome" curriculum. It helps you understand the following: what to share/not share, spot what's real and fake, keep your privacy and being kind online. 

Simple Ways to Protect Yourself Online

1. Stick to official media outlets

It's really hard to spot fake, so I stick to known news websites when reading about current events. For international news there's CNN, BBC, Fox News, Washington Post, For Philippine news I stick to Inquirer.net, Philstar.com, Manila Bulletin, GMA News and ABS-CBN News. For showbiz news there's PEP.ph. 

2. Skip watching trash videos

When I watch news videos on YouTube I also stick to official news organizations. I see a lot of fake news also (especially showbiz news), so I normally set them to "Don't recommend channel". This helps keep my stream clean. I also don't click on videos that copy and splice original videos out of respect for content creators. When there's nothing good to watch I check out NatGeo and BBC nature videos or I watch music videos from Wish 107.5 or I watch tutorials for my hobby.

I tried Tiktok for a day. The content is just not for me so I uninstalled it. 

3. Be wary of forwarded messages

One of the biggest ways fake information is circulated is through forwarded messages. I have friends who have fallen in this trap especially when it comes to news about COVID-19. One even believed it and thought the virus was not real, he got sick. He's also not vaccinated. 

I honestly got burned once with a forwarded message. The message was about getting a free burger. It gave instructions to forward the message to 5 people and register on a page. I soon realized that it was impossible for them to track sending the message to other people. I sent my apologies to my friends for sending the message. A day or two after the burger joint released an announcement that the message did not come from them. Since then I only use messaging apps only when I have to chat with someone. I rarely forward messages and only do if it comes from a reliable source. 

Protect yourself and your loved ones. We realized this when a family member was duped by his barber to create a new account. And that's another lesson for another day. You're homework for today is to check your parents stream to see what kind of content they are digesting. 

CB////*Yr2/195 #StuckAtHomeDay/Yr2/216 #NewG255 #Home11 #Xmas63 #StayHome #BeKind