FACTORS OF ACTIVE CITIZENSHIP

ACTIVE CITIZENSHIP PERCEPTION:

 Being an active citizen helps an individual to generate better perception or
viewpoints. When we say perception, it means the ability to see, hear, or become
aware of something through the senses. Prior to my own opinion and perspective
being an active citizen helps you to generate better ideas, view points and
perceptions because when you are active you tend to use most of your senses.
You tend to be more aware of your surroundings and environment, you tend to
be keener about what you see, and you tend to be more sensitive about what
you hear and feel. Considering all of these, I highly believe that an individual will
came up to better ideas since he/she considered what is happening around
him/her before putting his thoughts into actions. When a person ponders his
perceptions this way, failure and inaccuracy are avoided.

SOCIAL ACCOUNTABILITY:
 Being an active citizen are also beneficial in terms of knowing one’s responsibility
as a social being. We all know that in a community or society, there are rules and
regulations that are ought to be followed in order to regulate peace and stabilize
harmony. When you tend to be an active citizen of your community, you also
become aware of your social accountability as an individual. Before a society
become healthy for its citizens, the people need to work out their roles and learn
how to act accordingly depending on what is considered as right in the
regulations and rules implemented by the government. In addition to that, social
accountability will help every sector of the community to realized that following
the rules and regulations will result to the greater good of everybody. Like for
example, when students became an active citizen of their community by simply
going into school, they became knowledgeable and informed about good and
bad actions. When they know that if ever, they committed a crime and they will
be held accountable for that, they will start to avoid doing such actions. As a
result, the society where these students belong will benefit for they have citizens
that knows their accountabilities and responsibilities.

INTERCULTURAL AWARENENSS:
 Intercultural awareness is having an understanding of both your own and other
cultures, and particularly the similarities and differences between them. Being an
active citizen is helpful when developing intercultural awareness since it helps
you to become more engaged to learn and become more eager to improved your
knowledge about different cultures. In addition to that, when you are an active
citizen, your curiosity about things are always present. When you are curious,
you tend to seek answers by asking questions. Asking different questions are the
Page 1 of 3
 FACTORS OF ACTIVE CITIZENSHIP

easiest way to gather new set of information and ideas coming from other
individuals. We can do the same thing when we are trying to improve our
intercultural awareness. Like for example, inside a society, there are people who
has distinct beliefs, cultures, and norms. The active citizens can simply socialize
to one another so that they can be informed about the differences they have or
the uniqueness they possess. In this example that I have provided, the
importance of being an active citizen is visible since It will be easier for the
members of the society to communicate or interact with one another if they are
active agents of their community or town. Of course, if you are not eager to have
interaction or communication with your fellow mates, it will be indeed hard for you
to become aware of the others cultural beliefs. In other words, it will be
challenging for you to develop and improve your intercultural awareness.

AWARENESS OF DEMOCRACY AND HUMAN RIGHTS:

 Being an active citizen of your community helps you to become aware of the
human rights that we all have and the democracy that we all deserve. When you
tend to be an active citizen, of course, it is expected that you are well informed
about different things, aspects, concerns, and issues that your community has.
Nowadays, there are a lot of reported abuses that includes setting aside the
human rights of somebody. As an active citizen of the community, you have the
power to talk about the issue so that it will he heard by those individuals who has
power or is simply having the authority. You can be a channel so that the
authorities can take action and resolve the problem. Your voice can generate a
big impact on this. Same thing goes with the democracy. As an active citizen of
the community, you will have the power to choose who will govern your society.
When you are an active citizen, of course, you are well informed about your
surroundings, you are aware about your environment and you are
knowledgeable. I must say that considering these facts, your judgement will be
beneficial to avoid mistakes upon choosing who is the rightful leader to govern
your society.

THINKING ANG RESEARCH SKILLS:

 When we are conducting a certain research, we are aiming to discover new
things or we are eager to make innovations. I highly believe that being an active
citizen is beneficial when doing some research or thinking activities since you are
already aware about the aspects in your community that needed improvements
or the problems that needed to be resolve. It would be an edge for you since you
will lay your eyes only to the things that truly needed development or
enhancement in your society. Due to that fact, you will be able to save your time
Page 2 of 3
 FACTORS OF ACTIVE CITIZENSHIP

as well since you are focused and oriented. In addition to that, being an active
citizen of your community helps you to develop your thinking and research skills
because the attributes that are needed to develop these abilities like being open
to new set of knowledge, idea, and information are already innate to you. In other
words, to think and to research about things becomes a part of your daily basis
so it does not concern you at all.

INTERACTION AND INTERPERSONAL SKILLS:

 Prior to my own opinion and perspective, being an active citizen allows you to
have an edge in terms of developing your interaction and interpersonal skills
since your initiative to connect with people are already present. In other words,
your likeness to interact with your fellow mates are already there. When we say
Interpersonal skills, this refers to the skills we use every day when we
communicate and interact with other people, both individually and in groups.
They include a wide range of skills, but particularly communication skills such as
listening and effective speaking. They also include the ability to control and
manage your emotions. I mentioned earlier as I explained the other factor that
interaction or communication are easy to be performed by an active citizen
compared to those individuals who are not. When you tend to be an active
citizen, you are not afraid to speak up or to vocalize your thoughts to other
people which are indeed essential specially when the communication process is
just about to start. For the active members of the community, it is not hard to
socialize and build connections with their fellow mates because they are already
used to it. Being an active citizen allows them to continuously develop and
enhanced their interpersonal skills for they are continuously exposed to
communication and interaction. As we all say, experience is the best teacher. As
the active citizen keep on experiencing the communication process, their
doorway for learning will never close resulting into attaining an even better skills
and abilities.

Page 3 of 3