Educate Yourself by Reading Facebook Comments (and being lazy)

 I am the laziest person that I know. There are some guys that might beat me at that but since I can monitor myself more than them; I get more evidences that I’m the one. I don’t know how some people can focus and complete their jobs easily. They are good at deadlines. Following and remembering instructions for them are so relaxed. I can’t do most of my tasks without being distracted a lot. Before I typed that last sentence, it took me a while to write it because I heard some noise downstairs and it got me thinking far from what I was doing. I thought of food. 

It is a cliché but Facebook indeed plays a big part of our modern lives. We’ve been surfing the internet scattered for some years before we were sucked into this black hole which we now call the social media. It’s an organized disorganized way of sharing and telling people what you do, where you go, what you are, what you think even what you eat, wear, read, watch, hate, like, love in the world wide web. It’s not even surprising that it makes a good marketing ploy for some as news spread like fire when there’s something controversial explodes in our midst. Log in and you’ll see the information in a minute. Or even seconds. 

With all these shared news, what I usually do first is read the comments and look at the common and popular ones. There’s that usual phenomenon on these sections that 70% of the comments are similar, 10% are informative, 10% are in contrast of the majority, 5% makes sense, 5% is total garbage, or maybe more for the last one. If you ask me how I got this, this is from 100% of my opinion and observation. And I’m sure that many will agree with it though. And some will not, but it’s ok since you are only 10%. 

Seeing how similar most people think, it makes one ask if it’s reality that most of us are agreeing with each other or it’s just many are lazy to think deeper.  Replies are too predictable. And we can’t learn anything from them anymore. 

Again, laziness gets into me when I read these comments that when I think I have something to contribute to the discussion, I still choose not to. But when I feel like it, I look for the most commented and liked one. Most of the time, I disagree with it. I am not trying to be a contrarian but that’s what usually happens. I know that there’s something wrong with what they are saying. But just saying that they are wrong wouldn’t give any value to them, to the readers and to me. So I start researching and reading anything about the subject. After getting more facts and drawing some conclusions, I may reply to the post, and may also not. Sometimes I write about them here. Or I just talk about it and share with people around me. And by doing that, I understood the matter more than before. And the bottom line is I learned something better from reading the Facebook comments. And my laziness helped me on that.

Kanya-kanyang Buhat

“Sana itinulong na lang nila sa mahirap.” Ito ang madalas nating marinig o mabasa na komento ng ilang tao kapag may mga nababalitaan tayong mga bumibili ng mga tingin natin e luxuries o luho gamit ang kanilang limpak-limpak na salapi. Sana daw ibinigay na lang sa mga nagugutom. Sana dinonate na lang sa charity. Sana binigay na lang yung pera sa mga nasalanta ng sakuna. Sa isang banda, may punto naman. Sa dami ng nagugutom, sa dami ng naghihirap ay para nga namang mahirap isipin na nakakayang mabuhay sa karangyaan ng ilan.

Subalit, may karapatan ba tayo para manghimasok sa ating kapwa kung paano nila gagastusin ang perang kanila namang pinaghirapan? Maaaring may ilan na sasabihin na ninakaw lang o nakuha ang kanilang yaman sa maling paraan, pero ganoon na lang ba talaga kadaling humusga?

Paano rin kung nagagawa naman pala nilang tumulong? Sino ba ang makakaalam kung tumulong ba sila o hindi? Kailangan din ba na ang pagtulong ay pinapaalam? At kapag pinaalam naman, paghihinalaan na may hidden agenda o tatawaging pakitang tao lang?  At inaasahan ba natin na lahat ng pinaghirapan nila ay gagamitin na lang nila pantulong sa iba?  

Wala ka na bang ibang mai-comment?

Ang pagtulong ay isang mabuting gawain. Tinuturo na sa atin ito ng ating mga magulang mula pagkabata. Kadalasan ay itinuturo rin ito sa atin ng ating simbahan at nang ano mang sekta tayo kabilang.  At ang pagtulong ay dapat bukal sa puso. Hindi ito dapat idinidikta ng kung sino. Hindi rin ito ginagawa para magpakitang gilas.  At higit sa lahat, hindi rin ito dapat maging daan para ang isang tao ay umabuso at maging pala-asa na lang sa ibibigay ng kanilang kapwa.

At  kung may tao man na dapat nating diktahan o sabihan na tumulong sa kanyang kapwa, yan ay walang iba kundi ang mga sarili natin. Sa mundong ito, kanya kanya tayong dala, kanya kanyang tulak, kanya kanyang buhat. Kung may tumulong sa tin, thank you.  Magsikap naman kung wala. At kung ano yung gusto mong gawin sa yo ng kapwa mo, ikaw ang magumpisang gumawa sa iba. Golden rule nga di ba?

-- At yan ang madalas kong naiisip pag napupunta ako sa comments section ng mga balitang tulad ng "pagbili ng mamahaling kotse ni champion, nagdonate si businessman sa national team ng ilang milyon, nagpatayo ng malaking mansion si aktres, bumili ng sobrang mahal na diamond ring si doktora" at pagkatapos ay makakabasa o makakarinig ako ng paulit-ulit, napakababaw at walang kasense sense na komentong “sana dinonate na lang nya sa mahihirap”.  At kung isa ka sa mga ito, kapag ikaw na tao ka ay nanalo sa lotto ng ilang milyon ay wag na wag kang makakabili ng kahit anong mamahaling gamit dahil kung hindi, isasaksak ko itong comment mong nakakabuiset kasama ng item na binili mo sa iyong nakakasulasok at nakakaaburidong sumbong  (ika  nga ni Bonggang Bonggang Bongbong).