How Media Convergence Impacts Concepts of Literacy by: Aldrich Pesirla

Social media is a very powerful platform that can change and shape the way people think and behave. Social media made it so that almost everyone, if not everyone, has at least one of many social media account, such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. It’s almost as if having one is a necessity for this generation. Social media connects the people in the society, enabling them to engage with the society. It has been easier to organize movements for the advancement of the society. However, there are also disadvantages with social media as it changes the society. It is now very easy for anyone to take advantage of how easy it is to connect to the society and spread information that may be destructive, malicious, or fake that can easily affect also those in the platform.

              In the Philippine context, social media has changed the way people think and act. Most Filipinos appreciate western culture more than their own. They dress, speak, and act like them, even eat the food that they eat. That is because the western culture has dominated social media. But on the upside, Filipinos are connected. I can say this because there have been movements that connects the people from Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao. An example of this is the Fight for the rights of Lumads. The Lumads used social media to call out for help from the people of Luzon and Visayas. They posted pictures and wrote about their difficulties in their own homeland, ironically because of their own government. Although the fight is still ongoing, the people from Luzon and Visayas have already reached out to give help and support for the Lumads who are also fellow Filipinos. In a way, the Filipinos have been united because of social media.

              Another example is the recent river clean-up, organized by the Cebu City government. Although it is not a movement or an act that reached out to the whole country, it still called out help from the people of the island of Cebu. It was a simple post in a social media platform that showed a picture of the river that seemed as though it was a sea of trash that then caught the attention of the Cebu City government. From there, the government then posted to several social media platforms announcing the river clean-up and that everyone is encouraged to join.

              Social media is a powerful tool that can be used positively and negatively. It has its downsides and upsides. In the Philippine context, it has shaped the Filipino identity to unite the people of the country to a degree within diversity. But it is also often abused by people whose objective is to cause chaos in the country and the society.