Multimedia Proposition The critical issue being addressed here is that Filipino culture and identity is being displaced and negatively affected by immersing our populace in the global arena of social media platforms created in the west, produced for commercial purposes, and designed generically for consumption of any or all civilizations that are smitten with the conveniences of computer-mediated communication. It is not enough that we see an interface that has an option to display our native language in its labels; our proposition is a concept of a multimedia product that anticipates what Filipinos want and need, preserves the current good impact of social media to our culture, and infuses concepts that will theoretically empower us as a people. Thus we propose the following: Embrace Identity as a Social Construction Mediated socialization delays the process of symbolic interaction to a slower degree compared to how we socialize in the flesh. Therefore, most of our actions in this medium are consciously and thoughtfully executed. A multimedia product that allows us great flexibility in managing our identities will serve well to accomplish this goal. In real life, we put on faces depending on where we are or what we do, such as when we meet for business, hang out with friends, or converse with our parents. This is hard to do in Facebook because all our ‘friends’, regardless of their roles, see us in one picture. There is no delineation of the roles that we want to be in response to the roles of the people that we interact with. Thus it would matter greatly if we are able to label our ‘friends’ in multiple other ways, such as ‘family member’, ‘office-mate’, ‘business associate’, ‘classmate’, or least of all, ‘chance acquaintance’. Likewise, we should be able to build multiple images of ourselves that are intended for such connections. It would also be good to build profiles of others the way we consider them, based on their preferred multimedia products, the posts they ‘like’, or the contents of their posts. When the roles of our connections are properly identified, it will be easy to limit the audience of our actions within the system, in addition to controlling the intended recipients of our messages. These suggestions redound to greater control of our social face and our social audience from the premise that our identities are a product of the meanings that we derive from how others interact with us and our own interpretation of these messages. Delimiting the roles of our connections will help preserve and celebrate our cultural identity, as a large part of it is the unique ways we treat and behave around the significant people in our lives. Multimedia Technology in the Service of the Filipino Society This is a rather utilitarian view and nationally centric treatment to SNS, but if it is ideal that a society is not enslaved by technology, the only resolution is to make technology work for us. Since Filipinos take great pleasure in our kinship ties, it makes sense to implement a feature that induces connectivity based on similarity of interests, blood relations, and sharing of social roles, not just based on the presence of another person’s email address in one’s email account. Our society’s practices in response to various occasions, such as Festivals, Christmas, Rizal Day, All Saints’ Day, etc., should be automatically emphasized in the application’s interface. Anticipating, announcing, and monitoring one’s important traditions in a popular medium for everyone to see is an effective way of celebrating one’s culture. Moreover, data from our participation in SNS should be used for Filipinos’ ends, not for the advantage of foreigners that own the technology, hence the next point. Put Filipinos in Front of the Multimedia Technology Technology is itself culture, and thus constitutes a part of our identity. It is clear that we recognize the value of social media, why not create a multimedia platform that brands the Filipino identity? We need to encourage enterprise to invest in this kind of technology where Filipino talent (which we are in abundance of) is recognized. This also places the technology in our ownership and our control. Extensive Understanding of the Power of the Medium We need to sensitize Filipinos on the real effects, potentials, and dangers of mediated socialization by educating ourselves, especially our youth, of the social responsibilities in multimedia creation and consumption. This may be implemented in secondary curricula, or readily available and offered in the application’s interface itself. A front-end that is sensitive to content of information posted (real-time prompting system that can alert users of data sensitivity from their posts) is also an effective way of imposing awareness to the content that they create. We need to realize that social media is not just an avenue for fun, entertainment, gossip and chit-chat, but also a place for great economic opportunities.
The critical issue being addressed here is that Filipino culture and identity is being displaced and negatively affected by immersing our populace in the global arena of social media platforms created in the west, produced for commercial purposes, and designed generically for consumption of any or all civilizations that are smitten with the conveniences of computer-mediated communication. It is not enough that we see an interface that has an option to display our native language in its labels; our proposition is a concept of a multimedia product that anticipates what Filipinos want and need, preserves the current good impact of social media to our culture, and infuses concepts that will theoretically empower us as a people. Thus we propose the following:
Embrace Identity as a Social Construction
Mediated socialization delays the process of symbolic interaction to a slower degree compared to how we socialize in the flesh. Therefore, most of our actions in this medium are consciously and thoughtfully executed. A multimedia product that allows us great flexibility in managing our identities will serve well to accomplish this goal.
In real life, we put on faces depending on where we are or what we do, such as when we meet for business, hang out with friends, or converse with our parents. This is hard to do in Facebook because all our ‘friends’, regardless of their roles, see us in one picture. There is no delineation of the roles that we want to be in response to the roles of the people that we interact with.
Thus it would matter greatly if we are able to label our ‘friends’ in multiple other ways, such as ‘family member’, ‘office-mate’, ‘business associate’, ‘classmate’, or least of all, ‘chance acquaintance’. Likewise, we should be able to build multiple images of ourselves that are intended for such connections. It would also be good to build profiles of others the way we consider them, based on their preferred multimedia products, the posts they ‘like’, or the contents of their posts. When the roles of our connections are properly identified, it will be easy to limit the audience of our actions within the system, in addition to controlling the intended recipients of our messages.
These suggestions redound to greater control of our social face and our social audience from the premise that our identities are a product of the meanings that we derive from how others interact with us and our own interpretation of these messages. Delimiting the roles of our connections will help preserve and celebrate our cultural identity, as a large part of it is the unique ways we treat and behave around the significant people in our lives.
Multimedia Technology in the Service of the Filipino Society
This is a rather utilitarian view and nationally centric treatment to SNS, but if it is ideal that a society is not enslaved by technology, the only resolution is to make technology work for us.
Since Filipinos take great pleasure in our kinship ties, it makes sense to implement a feature that induces connectivity based on similarity of interests, blood relations, and sharing of social roles, not just based on the presence of another person’s email address in one’s email account.
Our society’s practices in response to various occasions, such as Festivals, Christmas, Rizal Day, All Saints’ Day, etc., should be automatically emphasized in the application’s interface. Anticipating, announcing, and monitoring one’s important traditions in a popular medium for everyone to see is an effective way of celebrating one’s culture.
Moreover, data from our participation in SNS should be used for Filipinos’ ends, not for the advantage of foreigners that own the technology, hence the next point.
Put Filipinos in Front of the Multimedia Technology
Technology is itself culture, and thus constitutes a part of our identity. It is clear that we recognize the value of social media, why not create a multimedia platform that brands the Filipino identity? We need to encourage enterprise to invest in this kind of technology where Filipino talent (which we are in abundance of) is recognized. This also places the technology in our ownership and our control.
Extensive Understanding of the Power of the Medium
We need to sensitize Filipinos on the real effects, potentials, and dangers of mediated socialization by educating ourselves, especially our youth, of the social responsibilities in multimedia creation and consumption. This may be implemented in secondary curricula, or readily available and offered in the application’s interface itself.
A front-end that is sensitive to content of information posted (real-time prompting system that can alert users of data sensitivity from their posts) is also an effective way of imposing awareness to the content that they create. We need to realize that social media is not just an avenue for fun, entertainment, gossip and chit-chat, but also a place for great economic opportunities.