Random Thoughts 4

"The difference between your generation and mine is..."

I often hear myself say this when I would like my students to realize how blessed or more privileged they are living a generation from mine. I also use this to take pride in my own generation which I regard as more brilliant despite the lack of technological advances we now have.

1. The Library- I have used the top three school libraries in the land: The UP Main Lib, The DLSU, Lib and ADMU's Rizal Lib. I have fond memories trying to look learned and in pursuit of further knowledge within the said edifices. Nowadays, my library is the world wide web which I share with my students. The difference is I use it really extensively while many students take it for granted that knowledge and information are at the click of their mouse and that they should be infinitely more informed than I am.
2. It was a good thing to have experienced both worlds: immediately before the PC and now. I get to appreciate better the wisdom behind many changes that have taken place in the world of information.
3. Admittedly, I talk a lot maybe too much for my own good. Twitter is the perfect venue for the opinionated me and I feel frustrated when I see it being wasted on nonsense talk and trending. Twitter is a discussion forum. Yet many tweeps don't bother to use even half of the 140 chars to drive home a point or join the convo on pressing issues and sensible concerns.
4. This past week was rather stressful with many of my OL friends taking sides on issues of two kinds: showbiz and politics. I must admit I could instigate some really vocal upheavals and for a while there, I thought I have offended enough tweeps with my tirades. I was frustrated and luckily, the tweeps that I care about understood.
5. I really don't care about how some sectors take to my tweets. There are two kinds of twitter people for me: those who are usually in agreement with me and those who I will never be on the same page with. I have some tweeps who I continue to follow despite differences in opinions and they're very few. Others, I immediately unfollow, block or mute. The difference between pizza and their opinion (as one tweet goes) is that I asked for pizza.
6. If you want to piss me right away, question my integrity as a teacher and connect it with something I said that you did not like. "Teacher ka pa naman". We don't say this to lawyers or doctors. We do hear this said of priests or nuns. "Pari ka pa naman." Madre ka pa naman."
7. There are many things I actually restrain my self from tweeting about lest I offend people. I am glad that I seem to have established some reputation online that my twitter friends do not anymore get surprised at the things I say OL. As another tweet says "If I do not react or say anything anymore, it means I have stopped caring."
8. There are two things I am quite passionate about as I tweet on them on a regularly basis: this government and the teleserye I watch every night. I cannot keep quiet on these two, I don't know why.
9. I may have said things I regret but I will never regret having the courage to speak my mind. I regret this about Pinoys in general. We are a passive, restrained lot. Students do not ask questions in class and even if I can talk and talk for hours, I'd appreciate it when someone interrupts me to contribute to the discussion or simply ask a question. Many of our problems as a nation could have been avoided if we were an inquisitive people from the start. I see the passivity not as politeness but a weakness.
10. To speak one's mind is not to be loud or nonsensical. Many comments OL are baseless, illogical and pure nonesense. Go to Instagram and get frustrated with how strangers dare comment on the lives of others as if they know their victims first hand. That's the worst of the opinionated kind. Socmed is so abused and wasted by these people.