EE ag Lesson 4: The Political Self and Being Filipino Lesson Objectives At the end of this lesson, you should be able to: 1. develop a Filipino identity; 2. identify different Filipino values and traits; and 3. reflect on your selfhood in relation to your national identity. ACTIVITY Who Is a Filipino? : that show Cut out pictures or illustrations from magazines and newspapers what being a Filipino is about. Paste them below. -ANALYSIS Answer the questions below in relation to what you have posted in the Previous activity. 1. How do the pictures remind you of your being a Filipino? [cence anemRe) 2. Are you proud of being a Filipino? Why and why not? L | 3. Imagine that you were of a different nationality. What would change in you aside from your citizenship and origin? 4. How extensive are the effects of being Filipino in your selfhood? —— ABSTRACTION | What makes a Filipino a genuine Filipino? Do physical characteristics such as having dark hair, flat nose, and dark complexion make one a Filipino? Or is ita person's language, birthplace, and ethnicity? If you were to introduce yourself as a Filipino to a person of another nationality and he or she asks, “Who are Filipinos?", what will you reply?etter The Philippin Ppines as we know it today has only emerged in the 1890s after ver three centuri the last colonizers fe lonization of the Spaniards. Meanwhile, liberation from language, and religion names: ONY Occurred in 1946. Foreign culture, belies, tothe contemporary Filipino es a huge dent on our own by setting a foundation an issue. Given the wide Bs lentity and culture. To date, colonial mentality remains time, would it be safe to s; Feria between the liberation period and today's On acai ‘ay that Filipinos have truly developed an identity of their Gy © still living in the shadow of our colonial friends? 'n this chapter, you will learn that an individual's race, ethnicity, and physical characteristics are not the only factors that make a Person's national identity. Values and traits are also important indicators that set apart one nationality from the other. These values and traits may not always be a positive thing, but being able to identify |, one's self apart from other nationalities and _"»/sw2tsmeumennes muPnotowsaencse 5253, point out weaknesses and mistakes, paired with unity and commitment, make progress a possibility. Through common goals, principles, and values iis people, anation empowers itself. © , Who Is a Filipino? Filipinos are often referenced to globally renowned personaliti& like Manny Pacquiao, Lea Salonga, and Michael Cinco who have made Filipinos recognized around the world through their expertise. However, being a Filipino is far more than just being related to these notable figures. Independence Day and Buwan ng Wika celebrations prompt us to go back to our roots and reflect on the question: Who is a Filipino? Technically, according to the 1987 Philippine Constitution, Filipino citizens hers or mothers are citizens of the Philippines, those born lipino mothers, who elect Philippine citizenship upon reaching the age of majority, and those who are naturalized in accordance with law.” However, citizenship is not the only marker of being a Filipino. Culture and history have greatly influenced the manner Filipinos learn, live, and behave to date. People who were born and grew up in the same culture develop and share common personality traits and values. Generations after generations, common traits and values have been passed on that the Filipinos of today still embody. are “...those whose fat ; before January 17, 1973, of FilThe Philippines is a lush island paradise famous for its grandiose mountain views, pristine beaches, and rich and diverse culture changing from province to ince. While the Philippines may be well known for its awe-inspiring beauty, perhaps the Filipinos’ unique traits, reputable values, and laudable talents make the country.a place to be Tourists who have visited the Philippines can never forget the big and bright smiles that greeted them, the colorful and loud jeepneys, the common Filipino phrases such as “Mabuhay!” and “Salamat!” and habits such as saying “po” and “opo” to theselders, leaving shoes or slippers at the front door before entering a house, and the importunate asking of “Kumain ka na ba?” meaning “Have you eaten yet?” Indeed, it is a marvel to experience these unique traits of the Filipinos firsthand. Few of these traits are as follows. The Filipino Hospitality A Filipino trait that is known everywhere is the Filipino’s brand of hospitality. Filipinos welcome their guests and tourists as if they are their own brothers and sisters; they always make their guests feel at home, offering them something to eat, or even a place to stay. They will bring out their best sets of plates and chinaware for their honored guests and would even go as far as spending a lot of money and going into debt just so they can satisfy them. In most local shops, Filipino salespersons will greet their customers with warm welcome and say thank you when they leave even without buying anything, Filipinos also anticipate giving toursto friends who will visit their hometown and treating them to the best restaurants and delicacies for free. During festivals or fiestas, Filipinos serve heaps of festive food and invite the whole barangay over, They are also fond of giving pasalubong or tokens from their travels and pabaon or farewell gifts to their visitors. Respect for Elders Filipinos greet their elders by kissing their hand while saying “Mano po!” and constantly using “po” and “opo” in conversations. Forgetting to address older people properly will regard them as rude and impolite. There is also a wide array of references to elder people such as ate for older sister; Kuya for older brother; Tito and Tita for uncle and aunt, respectively; Loloand Lola for grandfather and grandfather; and Manong and Aling for older people outside the family. Close Family Ties Filipinos maintain a tight relationship with their families regardless if the children are old enough and already have families of their own. They are also fond of family reunions during birthdays, holidays, or fiestas year-round. Some Filipino families even opt to live in a big house where everyone can stay together. Nursing homes are almost always not an option oose to take care of their elders themselves. for family members and ch‘ Cheerful Personality Filipinos have a habit of smiling and laughing a lot. They smile when they are happy, or sometimes even when they are sad or angry. Smiling has been a coping strategy for many Filipinos especially during trying times and calamities. For instance, Filipinos smile and wave at the camera while being interviewed even after a fire or flooding incident. They always try to maintain a positive outlook in life Which makes them resilient and able to manage almost everything with a simple smile.Self-sacrifice The self-sacrificing attitude of Filipinos can be seen as an extension of the Filipino hospitality. Filipinos go out of their way to extend help to their friends, families, and loved ones. They wish comfort and better lives for their loved ones | and would even go to the extent of working abroad hundreds of miles away to earn | More money and save up for them. Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) sacrificg | a lot; that is why they are regarded as the modern day Filipino heroes. There arg also times when the eldest among the children of the family would give up schoo, to work and provide for the rest of the family and educate his or her siblings. Bayanihan Bayanihan is the spirit of communal unity and cooperation of Filipinos. It is also about giving without expecting something in return. Filipinos are always ready to share and help their friends and loved ones who are in need. It may not always be in monetary form, but the time and effort they give also count as a form of help for them. This trait is particularly manifested in how Filipinos rally themselves to send aid to those who are severely affected by natural calamities “Bahala Na” Attitude “Bahala na’ is the Filipino version of the famous line “Hakuna Matata,” meaning no worries. The phrase is said to have originated from “Bathala na,” where Bathala means God, and the phrase meaning leaving everything into God's hands. It can also be viewed as something similar to the cheerful and positive attitude of Filipinos and allowing situations take care of themselves instead of worrying about them. Colonial Mentality Colonial mentality is regarded as the lack of patriotism and the attitude where Filipinos favor foreign products more than their own. This does not only concern goods, but also the desire to look more foreign than local and keep up with foreign beauty trends. It is attributed to the centuries of colonization Filipinos had experienced under the Spanish, American, and Japanese rule.“Mafiana” Habit _____ This is the Filipino term for procrastination. it was derived from a longer Filipino phrase called “Mamaya na” meaning dawdling things, which could have ver oie it its in heavier workloads, is a poor habit of laziness that resul “Ningas Kugon” “Ningas” is a Filipino term for flame and ‘kugon’ is a Filipino term for Cogon grass that easily bums out after it is put into flames. Ningas kugon refers to the attitude of eagerly starting things but quickly losing eagerness soon after experiencing difficulty, just like how fast the fire of a Cogon grass burns out moments after being ignited. Laziness is a common problem among Filipinos; that is why Filipinos are regarded as “Juan Tamad” or Lazy Juan. Pride Most Filipinos hold on to their pride as if they are more precious than keeping a good relationship with family and loved ones. When two parties are not in good terms, they find it so hard to apologize and wait until the other party asks for an apology first. Crab Mentality This is a toxic trait among Filipinos where one resents the achievement of another, instead of feeling happy for that person. Just like crabs in a container, they pull each other down and ruin each other's reputation rather than bringing them up, resulting to no progress. Filipinos should change this troublesome attitude and focus more on their own inadequacies to improve one's self. Filipino Time Filipinos have this common attitude of arriving late at commitments, dinner, or parties especially if they are meeting someone close to them. They tend to not observe punctuality altogether. The 7:00 pm call time becomes adjusted to 7:30 pm, and almost everyone arrives at the same time because everyone is using Filipino time. x ze |Filipino Markers What then are the hallmarks of our being 4 Filipino? en us truly relish in our being a Filipino? The following are constant reminders our nationality. 1. Proverbs or Salawikain Filipino proverbs, just like any other proverbs, are sayings that convey lessons and reflections on Filipino practices, beliefs, and traditions. Damiana Eugenio, regarded as the Mother of Philippine Folklore, classified proverbs into six categories (Eugenio, 2000): a. proverbs expressing a general attitude toward life and the laws that govern life; b. ethical proverbs recommending certain virtues and condemning certain vices; c. proverbs expressing a system of values; d. proverbs expressing general truths and observations about life and human nature; e. humorous proverbs; and f. _ miscellaneous proverbs. ‘An example of a Filipino proverb is the saying “Kung may tiyaga, may nilaga,” which means that hard work will be rewarded if one is persistent. -~ Superstitions Filipinos also subscribe to their own set of superstitions passed down from generation to generation. Some of these may be influenced by beliefs from other cultures, but Filipinos have retold these superstitions according to their own experiences and they sometimes end up even more interesting. According to a Filipino superstition, a woman singing while cooking will end up a spinster so parents remind their daughters to avoid singing while preparing their meals. Filipinos also avoid taking picture in threes as the one in the center is said to die, according to another superstition.ae Myths and Legends Due to the Philippines's rich culture and history, \ numerous myths and legends have sprung about things that are beyond one’s imagination. These stories are aimed to explain the origin of things, at the same time, teach a : valuable lesson. Some of these stories stemmed in pre- ra Period, but have evolved to the stories we know loday. A famous Filipino legend is about the origin of the pineapple fruit. It is about a story of a young and lazy girl named Pina who always asked where her mother kept the things she needed without looking for them first. When Pina's mother got tired of being asked where she hid her things, her mother wished that eyes be planted on Pina’s face so she would start using them. To her mother's surprise the next morning, Pina was gone and a fruit sprung in the yard, implanted with “eyes” all around its body which was later called ‘pinya, “the Filipino term for “pineapple.” Heroes and Icons Heroes serve as a reminder of true patriotism and nationalism as they have sacrificed their lives for the sake of their country’s freedom and progress. Every year, we lend a whole day to celebrate our heroes, usually the last Monday of August, to remember their greatness, bravery, and resilience that has led to the freedom we know today. Famous Filipino icons such as Lea Salonga, Manny Pacquiao, and our very own national hero, Jose Rizal, also serve as important Filipino markers as they have made the Filipino name more pronounced worldwide through their own expertise.—_ _————| How To Be A Good Filipino Now you know that your traits ai a Filipino. The problem now is how to trul to the development and progress of our how to be a good Filipino: 1 Be an active Filipino citizen. A good Filipino citizen is aware of the current events and participates in government programs that aim for the country's progression and development. By simply exercising your right to vote, you also become an active citizen. When it comes to voting, the rich and the poor have equal voting rights—every Filipino citizen of legal age have a chance in choosing the right leaders for the Philippines who are genuine in helping and caring for the Filipino people. nd values are important indicators of being ly become one and how you can be usefy) country. The following are a few ways on 2. Study the Philippine history. The road of the Philippine history is long and bloody, and by learning and fully understanding the events of the Philippine history, you will learn so much as to why it is so important for you to love your country with your life, extend help to your fellow Filipinos in need, and recognize abuse of political power. 3. Support local products. When you buy local products, you do not only support local | manufacturers and businessmen, but you also help strengthen the local | economy. How is this so? There will be more demand of local products, thus, local businesses will be in need for more employees, which will open new job opportunities. The business owners will also invest within the country and are less likely to leave. Supporting our local products also | displays our creativity, innovativeness, and resourcefulness. | 96 Understanding the SelfSpeak the Filipino language. nace o Me Filipino language was as long and hard as the ae nae lose Rizal highlighted the importance of speaking Speaking Filipino . as a way of displaying the love for one’s country. has boon a di also serves as a unique identifier of being a Filipino. It lecade-long debate whether to use Filipino as the instructional language in School and to translate textbooks into Filipino, however, this is still not strictly imposed. Do not spread fake news and be democratic in engaging with dissent. This period in the history of the Philippines has seen how the Internet has spawned tons of possibilities for people, both good and bad. For instance, it is easier for Filipinos working abroad to communicate with their loved ones left in the Philippines through the Internet. Despite this, the Internet has also made the spread of fake news very common. Likewise, the Internet has also made us engage in intense arguments with people across the globe about our political positions, for example. It is a part of being a good Filipino to understand and verify what you read online, especially in social media, before actually believing in it and spreading it like wildfire. It is also the responsibility of every Filipino to recognize disagreement in political views, be tolerant, and argue intelligently without having to resort into name-calling people.APPLICATION AND ASSESSMENT 1. Make an acrostic below which will describe you, in relation to your being a Filipino: F ° + Yl Discuss how being a Filipino affects your “self.” How can becoming a better Filipino influence your duty to becoming a better version of yourself?rid? (Digital Self) Lesson 5: Who Am | in the Cyberwo! Lesson Objectives At the end of this lesson, you should be able to: 1. define online identity; 2. compare real identity versus online identity: i 5 it ler; ani 3. describe the influence of Internet on sexuality and gen 4. discuss the proper way of demonstrating values and attitudes online, INTRODUCTION These days, more people are becoming active in using the Internet for research, pleasure, business, communication, and other purposes. Indeed, the Internet is of great help for everyone. On the other hand, people assume different identities while in the cyberspace. People act differently when they are online and Offline. We have our real identity and online identity. ACTIVITY Three Facts, One Fiction Construct four sentences that should start with “I am. es Three of the four sentences should be true about yourself. You can talk about your characteristics, strengths, weaknesses, accomplishments, personalities, and behavior. One statement should be a lie—something that you just made up about yourself. Make the activity more fun by making your classmates believe that the ‘statement is true. 1, lam a a RAY 2. lam 3. lam picdisnltn To ewiehe ga bic 4. lam foo ea ne eeANALYSIS What have ia classmates hee learned from the activity? Did you learn something from a figure out which ae did not know before? What were the clues that helped . i latements were facts and fiction? Were your classmates able to discem easily the facts and fiction about you? Why? pc alg the same activity in the virtual world or cyberworld, how do people po ae i selves online? What are the things that you would want to post/share online? What are the things you want others to share online? ABSTRACTION The number of people who are becoming more active online continues to increase worldwide. More than half of the population worldwide now uses the Internet. It has only been 25 years since Tim Berners-Lee made the World Wide Web available to the public, but in that time, the Internet has already become an integral part of everyday life for most of the world's population. The Philippines is among one of the countries with the most active Internet users (We are Social and Hootsuite n.d.). . Almost two-thirds of the world's population now has a mobile phone. is More than half of the world’s web traffic now comes from mobile phones. . More than half of all mobile connections around the world are now “broadband.” «More than one in five of the world's population shopped online in the past 30 days. Media users in the Philippines grew by 12 million or 25% while the number of mobile social users increased by 43 million or 32%. Those growth figures are still higher compared to the previous year. More than half the world now uses a smartphone.& GLOBAL DIGITAL SNAPSHOT : 7476 3.773 2.789 4.917 2.549 BILLION BILLION BILLION BILLION 54% 50% 37% 66% 34% Figure 1. Growth of world digital users in 2016 compared to 2015. Based on Figure 1, the number of digital users worldwide increases. More people are becoming interested and devoted in using the Internet for various activities. In the Philippines, adolescents are among the most avid users of the Internet. a ANNUAL GROWTH ‘ +10% +21% + 5% + 30% +354 MILLION +482 MILLION +222MILLION +581 MILLION Figure 2. Percentage of mobile internet users from different age groups in the Philippines. Online identity is actually the sum of all our characteristics and our interactions while partial identity is a subset of characteristics that make up our identity. Meanwhile, persona is the partial identity we create that represents ourselves in a specific situation.Selective Self-presentation and Impression Management “ er a Goffman (1959) and Leary (1995), self-presentation is the ae or controlling how one is perceived by other people” and is the key to relationship inception and development. To construct positive images, individuals selectively provide information about them and carefully cater this information in response to other's feedback. Anything Posted online should be considered “public” no matter what our “privacy” settings are. Let us say, a student wrote online about how much he hated another student in school, and started bullying him online. Does it matter if the student said, “Well, this is my personal account”? Even if the student wrote it in a “private” account, it can become public with a quick screen capture and shared with the world. Personal identity is the interpersonal level of self which differentiates the individual as unique from others, while social identity is the level of self whereby the individual is identified by his or her group memberships. Belk (2013) explained that sharing ourselves is no longer new and has been practiced as soon as human beings were formed. Digital devices help us share information broadly, more than ever before. For those who are avid users of Facebook, it is possible that their social media friends are more updated about their daily activities, connections, and thoughts than their immediate families. Diaries that were once private or shared only with close friends are now posted as blogs which can be viewed by anyone. In websites like Flickr or Photobucket, the use of arm’s-length self-photography indicates a major change. In older family albums, the photographer was not often represented in the album (Mendelson and Papacharissi 2011), whereas with arm’s-length photos, they are necessarily included (e.g., selfies and groupies). In addition, the family album of an earlier era has become more of an individual photo gallery in the digital age. As Schwarz (2010) mentioned, we have entered an extraordinary era of self-portraiture. Blogs and web pages have been continuously used for greater self-reflection and self-presentation. Facebook and other social media applications are now a key ixth of humanity. As a result, researchers and part of self-presentation for one si 0 ned with actively managing identity and reputation and participants become conce! ; to warn against the phenomenon of “oversharing” (Labrecque, Markos, and Milne 2011; Shepherd 2005; Suler 2002; Zimmer and Hoffman 2011). Sometimes people become unaware of the extent of information they share online. They forget to delineate what can be shared online and what should not. Furthermore, it provides amore complete narration of self and gives people an idealized view of how they would like to be remembered by others (van Dijck 2008). Many teenagers, as e Sone CSS ER a euwell as some adults, share even more intimate details with their partners like their Passwords (Gershon 2010). This could be an ultimate act of intimacy and trust or the ultimate expression of paranoia and distrust with the partner. Because of the conversion of private diaries into public revelations of inner secrets, the lack of privacy in many aspects of social media make the users more vulnerable, leading to compulsively checking newsfeeds and continually adding tweets and postings in order to appear active and interesting. This condition has been called “fear of missing out.” People would like to remain updated and they keep on sharing themselves online because it adds a sense of confidence at their end especially if others like and share their posts. One of the reasons for so much sharing and self-disclosure online is the so-called “disinhibition effect” (Ridley 2012; Suler 2004). The lack of face-to-face gaze-meeting, together with feelings of anonymity and invisibility, gives people the freedom for self-disclosure but can also “flame” others and may cause conflict sometimes. The resulting disinhibition causes people to believe that they are able to express their “true self” better online than they ever could in face-to-face contexts (Taylor 2002). However, it does not mean that there is a fixed “true self.” The selfs still a work in progress and we keep ‘on improving and developing ourselves every single day. Seemingly self-revelation can be therapeutic to others especially if it goes together with self-reflection (Morris et al. 2010). But it does appear that we now do a large amount of our identity work online. When the Internet constantly asks us: “Who are you?” and “What do you have to share?" it is up to us if we are going to provide answers to such queries every time we use the Internet and to what extent are going to share details of ourselves to others. In addition to sharing the good things we experience, many of us also share the bad, embarrassing, and “sinful” things we experience. We also react and comment on negative experiences of others. Sometimes, we empathize with people. We also argue with others online. Relationships may be made stronger or broken through posts online. Blogs and social media are the primary digital fora on which such confessions occur, but they can also be found in photo- and video- sharing sites where blunders and bad moments are also preserved and shared (Strangelove 2011). Why confess to unseen and anonymous others online? In Foucault's (1978, 1998) view, confessing our secret truths feels freeing, even as it binds us in a guilt-motivated self-governance born of a long history of Christian and pre-Christian philosophies and power structures.According to examination, see Foucault (1998), confession, along with contemplation, self- "tof the “technol 9, reading, and writing self-critical letters to friends, are logies of the self” through which we seek to purge and cleanse ourselves. ; Despite the veil of invisibility, writers on the Internet write for an unseen ee (Serfaty 2004). Both the number and feedback of readers provide self- validation for the writer and a certain celebrity (O'Regan 2009). Confessional blogs may also be therapeutic for the audience to read, allowing both sincere empathy and the voyeuristic appeal of witnessing a public confession (Kitzmann 2003). Consequently, we should have a filtering system to whatever information we share online, as well as to what information we believe in, which are being shared or posted by others online. We should look at online information carefully whether they are valid and true before believing and promoting them. In the same way, we should also think well before we post or share anything online in order to prevent conflict, arguments, and cyberbullying, and to preserve our relationships with others. Gender and Sexuality Online According to Marwick (2013), while the terms “sex,” “gender,” and “sexuality” are often thought of as synonymous, they are actually quite distinct. The differences between the common understandings of these terms and how m yield key insights about the social functioning of gender. Sex is the biological state that corresponds to what we might call a “man” ora “woman.” This might seem to be a simple distinction, but the biology of sex is actually very complicated. While “sex” is often explained as biological, fixed, and immutable, it is actually socially constructed (West and Zimmerman 1987). Gender, then, is the social understanding of how sex should be experienced and how sex manifests in behavior, personality, preferences, capabilities, and so forth. A person with male sex organs is expected to embody a masculine gender. While sex and gender are presumed iologically connected, we can understand gender as researchers think about ther to be bi ific set of norms that are mapped onto a category of “sex” 78; Lorber 1994). Gender is historical. It is produced iture (Gauntlett 2008; van Zoonen 1994). It is taught by s, and nation states (Goffman 1977). It is reinforced admonition, slang, language, fashion, and discourse d Kulick 2003), and it is deeply ingrained. Gender a socioculturally spec! (Kessler and McKenna 49 by media and popular cu! families, schools, peer group: through songs, sayings: (Cameron 1998; Cameron anis a system of classification that values male-gendered things more than female related things. This system plays out on the bodies of men and women, and in constructing hierarchies of everything from colors (e.g-, pink vs. blue) to academic departments (e.g., English vs. Math) to electronic gadgets and websites. Given this inequality, the universalized “male” body and experience is often constructed as average or normal, while female-gendered experiences are conceptualized as variations from the norm (Goffman 1977). ion and understanding of desire. While Sexuality is an individual expressi ; i homosexual or heterosexual), in reality, like gender, this is often viewed as binary (| sexuality is often experienced as fluid. Performing Gender Online Theorist Judith Butler (1990) conceptualized gendi She explained that popular understandings of gender and sexuality came to be through discourse and social processes. She argued that gender was performative, in that it is produced through millions of individual actions, rather than something that comes naturally to men and women. Performances that adhere to normative understandings of gender and sexuality are allowed, while those that do not are admonished (for example, a boy “throwing like a girl”) (Lorber 1994). In the 1990s, many Internet scholars drew from Butler and other queer theorists to understand online identity. According to the disembodiment hypothesis, Internet users are free to actively choose which gender or sexuality they are going to portray with the possibility of creating alternate identities (Wynn and Katz 1997). The ability of users to self-consciously adapt and play with different gender identities would reveal the choices involved in the production of gender, breaking down binaries and encouraging fluidity in sexuality and gender expression. ler as a performance. Recently, social media has been celebrated for facilitating greater cultural participation and creativity. Social media sites like Twitter and YouTube have led to the emergence of a “free culture” where individuals are empowered to engage in cultural production using raw materials, ranging from homemade videos to mainstream television characters to create new culture, memes, and humor. At its best, this culture of memes, mash-ups, and creative political activism allows for civic engagement and fun creative acts. While Digg, 4chan, and Reddit are used mostly by men, most social network site users are women; this is true in Facebook, Flickr, LiveJournal, Tumbir, Twitter, and YouTube (Chappell 2011; Lenhart 2009; Lenhart et al. 2010). But mere equality of use does not indicate equality of participation. While both men and women use Wikipedia, 87% ofwasnt ayes \ributors Were identified as male (LaValle 2009). Male students are roe : Create, edit, and distribute digital video over YouTube or Facebook fener . syaents. However, the Pew Internet and American Life Project found ie ictal differences 'n user-generated content by gender except remixing, which was Most likely among teen girs (Lenhart et al. 2010). One explanation oy ness aierances is that User-generated content is often clustered by gender. Reseetcliers have Consistently shown that similar numbers of men and women maintain a blog—about 14% of internet users (Lenhart et al. 2010). While the a He and female bloggers is roughly equivalent, they tend to blog about different things. Overwhelmingly, certain types of blogs are written and read by women (€.g., food, fashion, parenting), while others (e.g., technology, politics) are written and run by men (Chittenden 2010; Hindman 2009; Meraz 2008). Although Sea are the same, the norms and mores of the people using them differ. Setting Boundaries To Your Online Self: Smart Sharing The following guidelines will help you share information online in a smart way that will protect yourself and not harm others. Before posting or sharing anything online, consider the following . Is this post/story necessary? . Is there a real benefit to this post? Is it funny, warm-hearted, teachable—or am | just making noise online without purpose? Have we (as a family or parent/child) resolved this issue? An issue that is still being worked out at home, or one that is either vulnerable or highly emotional, should not be made public. Is it appropriate? Does it stay within the boundaries of our family values? Will this seem as funny in 5, 10, or 15 years? Or is this post better suited for sharing with a small group of family members? Or maybe not at all?