A CALL TO HOPE

The youth is the hope of the future. Yet, Hope is but a faint dream if the youth lack the strength
and resilience in going through life’s arduous battles. The future remains too far if the youth of today
will fail to set their focus to the goal—to the things that matters more. Technological advancement,
while a blessing to mankind, has also proven to be a curse in how it has negatively affected the social
and psychological growth of this generation. The social media’s core purpose of connecting people is a
cold hard irony of how this tech-era now withers relationship and creates social divide. What we
thought was an avenue for everyone to establish connections to the people we love and we have
missed, social media has turned us into insecure and frustrated souls crushing our self-esteem with a
false reality of glamour and materialism.

This inconvenient reality is more glaring now than ever with almost every teenager owning
smartphones like it is a necessity. If you are not taking selfies, not sharing memes, or posting for the
gram, society, or must I say the perceived society teenagers build, will consider you ‘out’. Almost every
one of my age is living a double life. One is the reality a teenager is currently in, and the other is a
polished virtual reality were everyone strives to look, dress, eat, own the best. “Sana all”,
“#RelationshipGoals”, “#TravelGoals”—these aspirations that technology and social media creates like a
demand misdirects us to the true goal we as the hope of this nation, and the stewards of this planet
should have been aiming for.

As adolescence is the most crucial stage of a person’s psychosocial development, the advent of
social media and the fake perfection it advertises creates a drive for teenagers to belong and the fear of
not being able to cope up with the trend. This being the case, activities that should matter more in
enhancing one’s social skills and environmental and political consciousness are swept under the rug.
Psychologist Jean Twenge in her study entitled __________________, she tagged Social Media as an
Epidemic of Anguish. Teenagers are being hooked up by the fake reality of media. Stating the grim truth,
she said that it has wasted most of the student’s time as they now turn to spend long hours in Facebook
or play online games instead of studying for an exam or help chores in their homes.

All these adverse effects of social media and technology is just the tip of the iceberg and we are
just scratching from the surface if we forget to highlight few of the worst things this gift of an era has
brought for us all. Cyberbullying and depression, both almost always go together. With Facebook,
Instagram and other social media platforms now taking center stage as the main information highway,
social media irresponsibility is responsible in fomenting cyberbullying and depression. Many lives waste
away because someone somewhere chose to use his or her social media platform to mock and make fun
of someone who is depressed. Public humiliation in social media seems more of an entertainment than
a crime as both young and the old enjoy sharing, liking and commenting on posts that talk about an
individual’s fault or mistake. Everything is too much and everyone cares too little.

Recognizing the seriousness of the situation, the government and world leaders has been
addressing the situation with measures that will serve to protect the youth against these social diseases.
The President Rodrigo Duterte has signed the Republic Act No. 11036 otherwise known as the Philippine
Mental Health Law which seeks to improve and protect the mental health of individuals. A few years
back, Republic Act No. 10627 or the Anti-bullying Law was signed into law to curb down rampant
bullying in both public and private schools. The government through these measures proves that it gives
mental health and youth development importance as it does with all other aspects of society. It has to
be so since no less than the Philippine Constitution mandates the protection of both the youth as a key
sector, and mental health as an essential human right aspect.

With all these issues pestering the youth, it is my prayer that we reimagine this immortalized
quote “The youth is the hope of the future”. With a sense of urgency, I say we, the youth, should be the
hope of the present and the now. There is no time to waste. If truly we have lost sight of what is
important because technology and social media corrupted us to desire the shallow material things, it is
also through technology and social media that we can rise up as one in taking up the space we are
meant to occupy. And that is to be no less than the movers, the game-changers, the watchdogs and the
advocates for a better government and a safer planet.