Sun.Star Cebu

Welcome, the new world!

- STELLA A. ESTREMERA saestremer­a@gmail.com

We only need to look at the comments section of a post to see that even the cutest animal post can go off-tangent as someone will always see fire and brimstones and will castigate the one who posted, the one who took the photo and video, and all those who went, “Aaaaaawww!”

That’s how the world is today. You are subject, not just to likes and hearts from friends, but vitriol from people you never even knew from places you haven’t even been to.

It’s sad, but that is the downside of social media. We are judged by what we post or are posted and there is no way we can protect ourselves from being peppered by negativiti­es unless you unplug and do not document the things you do.

Now think: videoing one’s bullying acts... There are a lot of red flags in this case that say, the bully was allowed by his environmen­t (school administra­tion included) to continue with his bullying ways if we are to take that within the context that there were at least three videoed bullying acts on three different children.

Now the school administra­tion can only say, they are investigat­ing the issue, not that they were attending to the issue before the videos grabbed our collective attention. Meaning, the school was oblivious, and can indicate it is negligent. That fits right in under ignorance of law, especially because there is the Anti-Bullying Act of 2013 that places the full responsibi­lity on the school.

And then there’s the act of videoing one’s criminal act...

A big, red flag warning us: These could be our kids, and they could be videoing whatever it is they are doing to feel gratificat­ion, because... that’s how we reared them to feel.

That non-stop picture-taking we subject our cute little children to, after which they want to look at them and feel gratified with what they see? This is not just about the photo taken and the gratificat­ion they feel, especially when the camera phone is used to excess. Excessive can be taking more than just one photo a day, because, really... we never subjected ourselves to a photograph session every day before and a number of us are already delusional (read: gandang-ganda sa sarili).

In “The Entitlemen­t Cure: Finding success in doing hard things the right way” by Dr. John Townsend (Thank you, Big Bad Wolf!), it read:

“You have to learn the difference between a need, which should be met, and an entitled desire, which should be starved. Meeting a need leads to life, and feeding an entitlemen­t leads to destructio­n.”

The kids were bullied, including the bully. Guess whose life has gone off-kilter because of a misplaced feeling of superiorit­y that he needed to video?

Parents, it’s really your call. And please, put that cellphone down.

There are a lot of red flags in this case that say, the bully was allowed by his environmen­t to continue with his bullying ways if we are to take that within the context that there were at least three videoed bullying acts on three different children.

The number of persons killed in police operations, mostly anti-illegal drugs, in at least 12 villages in Talisay City, Cebu fropm February to Dec. 18, 2018.

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