Journal 6

Before I was introduced to individual responsibility, my initial thoughts about it was

individual responsibility is merely voluntary work. These voluntary works will help many
people, but that’s about it. It did not occur to me the greater impacts of individual
responsibility and the different aspects of individual responsibility. In the past, to me,
individual social responsibility is just a source of where I can get my CIP points in secondary
and in polytechnic. However, I realized that this perception of individual responsibility was
not the full concept of individual social responsibility.

During the research journey of individual social responsibility, I learnt that it is not just a
voluntary work that is assigned by teachers, schools, CCAs and etc. Individual social
responsibility is a behavior that should be cultivated as a habit in our daily lives. It is a
responsibility of every individual to protect and improve the state of our environment and
community by conducting ethical actions or movement. These actions and movements are
supposed to be conducted in a long-term basis. It is insufficient and useless if this acts or
movements are done only for a short-term basis or one-time basis.

In addition, the impact of individual social responsibility on the environment and community
is smaller compared to corporate social responsibility. However, one has to start small
before influencing the surrounding people to act ethical and socially responsible for his/ her
actions.

After learning individual social responsibility, there may be several changes on how I act to
protect and improve our environment and community.

For the environment, I would try to reduce the carbon footprints. As I am a frequent grab
rider, I will try to take public transport and carpools. This is quite a big change to me, as
taking ride hailing services has become a habit. Hence, I will take the public transport to my
destinations as much as possible.

Moreover, in UB, we use a huge amount of papers. Hence, I will print double-sided than
single-sided. I will also maximize the space on the paper for note-taking.

For the community, in UB, I can show my appreciation to our washroom cleaners and
foodcourt cleaners, who clear our plates, by saying a simple ‘thank you’ or asked them
‘how’s their day’. I think this will make their day and they will feel appreciated. Without
them, SIM will be dirty. They play an important in upkeeping the cleanliness and hygiene of
our school. Hence, I think we should be appreciative and grateful for their hard work.
This simple act of appreciation can improve the community in SIM.

In a nutshell, I think the concept of individual social responsibility should be instilled since
young. Reason being, when the mindset of social individual responsibility is cultivated since
young, individual social responsibility grows on an individual. This increases the acts of
individual social responsibility, which improves our environment and community.