Radio guesting, Cyberbullying and Social Media responsibility

I was working on night shift that day when I opened up this blog’s Gmail account. Then I saw a couple of unread emails.  What quickly caught my attention was this 2 day old mail with the title “Radio Interview”.   So I opened it up and read it. It was a radio guesting invitation on a Sunday youth oriented show.  And on a catholic Church ran station, Radio Veritas.

Radyo Totoo

Seven months ago, I just wanted to write. To think aloud. To be read by many.  I thought it was too soon for me to be invited to guest on a radio show. Though the idea excited me, of course.

And though I rarely mention the catholic Church in my articles, I am trying to make my posts to be as catholic as they are.  Well I hope that’s how they sound. And this specific post was probably the one that caused it. At first, I was hesitant on posting about that topic, the RH bill, as I had been writing and posting about it, against it, for more than 3 years already. Thru those times, I almost grew tired of answering the same sets of questions. And some other guys probably grew tired of me as well. And that became my inspiration in composing that blog post.

This gave me opportunity to need not answering those questions again. Or maybe not actually answering, but just typing.  I just needed to create a consolidated reply. Albeit I still missed some of the arguments I made before. It’s hard to put everything in a post anyway. But I guess it covered at least the most common ones. And it might be of use as a resource for others who will be asked the same set of questions about the bill. And of course it would help me replying if being asked by the same stuffs again. I’ll just give a link to that blog post. Then I’ll also get a blog view. And indeed, I got views I never thought of having in span of few days due to some groups and individual people’s link sharing (thanks guys). And more than what I had expected is that I got a radio guesting as a bonus. A blessing.

The date was September 15.  After attending the mass with my family, we went to a rainy 1-hour drive from Antipolo to SM North EDSA. The radio station was at the opposite side. As we were an hour ahead of schedule, we ate at the mall first. Then we head to the station. My sister who had her OJT at that station last year dropped by there also upon hearing about my guesting. 

Then I met the hosts of the show, Bro. Joseph and Bro. Noel.  We had a short briefing about the flow and told me that it will be just like a usual typical “kwentuhan”. The difference is that thousands of people around the country are listening. And it’s live. 

Me with Snacktym Berks hosts, Bro. Joseph and Bro. Noel

The topic was about the use social media and cyberbullying. Two days prior to that, it was in the news that the cybercrime law was already signed by the president. But it was not yet that hot of an issue at that time. It was on the broadsheets. Well, only a few seemed to be reading from the broadsheets nowadays. Almost 2 weeks had passed before the people infuriated with anger against the law.

I then gave a piece of my mind about social media, the possible dangers and the advantages that it can give to people. Like I said, it’s like a knife that you can use on its purpose in the kitchen or to hurt people.  Sometimes, people are not aware that they are already hurting others. They think it’s their right. That they are just being honest. But to hurt people because they think it’s just right because that person is hurting another, isn’t that making it an eternal loop of offending people? But some do it in purpose. Like trolling. Trolling is basically when one tries to disrupt harmony on online discussions and to annoy the other posters. And online trolling is one thing, bullying is another. But a troll can also be a bully.

Unlike bullying in the real world, online bullying is more difficult to avoid and get over with.  It can spread like wildfire. It can be ignited by utilizing the burning emotions of the people. Unlike bullies at school, they can be just 1, 2 or a group of person. And you can avoid them physically by hiding or running away from them. But online bullying is worse. It can grow in large proportions.  You can’t simply run or hide. 

But, you can go offline. And as much as possible, avoid firefighting. And just let the fire subside. The point is, people forget easily. And those who don’t like you after the bullying probably didn’t like you even before it started. And those who really know you will not be affected. If they are, then they didn’t truly know you at all. As long as you’re doing what is right, you should not be affected by bullying. Don’t get sidetracked. That’s one of the objective of the bullies and trolls. Just continue doing your thing and let the bullies enjoy their space and time. The more you ignore them, the more you are winning against them.

Behind the mike

And even though we catch people now doing bad stuffs thru CCTVs, this does not give us a license to hurt them in return.  It’s natural for us people to get emotional and angry. But let’s try not to let emotion bring the worst in us, even worse than the people we are angry with. And bullying is a serious matter because there are even instances where the victims committ suicide because of this. Here’s a post of a blogger friend about a talk given by a “bullying victim”, Christopher Lao and examples of people who killed themselves because of cyberbullying.

This is actually one of the bad things about social media. It gives everybody a sense of power. And power corrupts people especially those who do not know how to handle it. And it also creates an illusion of an absolute right to be heard no matter how trivial, violent or non-sensible our words are. And I hope I’m not one of them. If I’m like that sometimes, then forgive me.

One hour passed by swiftly. And the show ended. I had a great time. Although I had experiences speaking in front of crowds a lot of times before, talking live on radio was a first time for me. Hopefully it would not be the last. By the way, I was invited again once but unfortunately, my schedule won’t permit me that time.  Thanks to Radio Veritas especially to Bro. Noel and Bro. Joseph for inviting me. I really enjoyed that wonderful experience. More power to you and your show, Snacktym Berks. To my readers here, tune in to them as they air every Sunday, 4-5PM on Radyo Veritas, 846kHZ AM.