0:03 how is social media
0:06 westernizing the Filipino culture this
0:09 is from wendia samel samiz and
0:11 psychotherapist here in California now
0:14 if you've listened to me before I have
0:16 mentioned and you'll keep mentioning
0:18 that for every culture there's always a
0:21 shadow a negative and a light side the
0:23 positive side so of course there's
0:26 something positive about the Western
0:29 culture when I say Western knes the
0:32 Philipp culture and the Western culture
0:35 are very different culture one is very
0:37 individualistic and Filipino culture is
0:42 very collectivistic so I am framing my uh
0:43 uh
0:48 contrasting uh based on those facets now
0:51 if you're consuming social media so you
0:54 might be using Facebook Instagram Tik
0:56 Tok I'm talking about those social media
0:59 but also the mediums that we now use how
1:03 we can consume our news on Facebook or
1:07 on the Internet um first one that it
1:10 would something to pounder in how we are
1:13 changing our culture simply by consuming
1:17 social media is uh Filipinos are very
1:20 relational and uh this is very hard for
1:24 if you were born uh in America in Canada
1:27 uh because especially the elders would
1:30 make comment sometimes just simply by
1:35 greeting in which they might ask a weird
1:37 question when are you going to have your
1:40 own kids in which we should learn from
1:43 each other if we know um that this
1:45 offends the young so maybe we don't want
1:50 to ask that question but if you are the
1:53 generation living in the west just know
1:56 that the way that Filipinos ask the when
1:58 I say Filipino I'll just talk about
2:00 Filipino immigrants or Filipino IND the
2:04 islands they ask not from a task
2:07 oriented question meaning they don't
2:10 necessarily may need an answer it's like
2:11 they use it as a
2:14 greeting um their questions are more
2:17 relational questioning in which they are
2:20 using it to connect to actually go to a
2:24 deeper or more of a topic that is uh
2:28 mutually uh enjoyable for for both but
2:31 they don't know yet so gauging this is
2:35 one of the reasons why social media is
2:39 not really in my opinion is is almost um
2:44 the opposite of the Filipino culture as
2:48 we know it it's very uh relational in
2:50 social media it's very
2:54 transactional so that's the first one um
2:57 second um we know there are cultures
3:02 that are high context and low context so
3:04 the Western culture is very low context
3:08 we teach our children say what you mean
3:10 so that you can get your needs met in
3:13 many cultures that are at high context
3:16 which is the Filipino culture is one of
3:19 those high CO High context culture
3:23 there's a lot of things to consider than
3:24 just the
3:27 Linguistics um we talk with our bodies
3:29 and I have a video that I could link
3:31 below how Filipinos talk with their
3:34 bodies and those are the things you miss
3:36 when you're communicating with somebody
3:39 just simply using social media so the
3:41 more we use it we're priming not just
3:45 our communication but truly our brain
3:48 because our brain changes from what we
3:50 call you know it's neuroplastic so it
3:55 changes based on a repetition uh of what
3:58 we're doing it could also change based
4:01 on trauma even a single incident but
4:03 it's traumatic you know we could
4:06 remember that more brain-wise and
4:10 bodywise um and so the more we do it one
4:13 of the reason that it's likely that we
4:16 are westernizing the Filipino culture
4:18 you could check out the book called
4:22 shallows and um I forgot the the author
4:24 but I could link it in which the thesis
4:29 of that book is that now our brains are
4:32 uh evolving to read information in a
4:36 more shallow manner because of the way
4:37 we consume our
4:40 information now so that's the second
4:44 part the context is lost next is just
4:48 what I mentioned um the Western culture
4:49 is very
4:51 linguistic uh you would know a culture
4:53 that's very linguistic with the law that
4:56 they have the more laws uh it's likely
4:58 that they are more linguistic it's
5:01 coming from the history of the Roman
5:03 Empire and uh you just check your own
5:07 history but for instance if you say to
5:12 someone I am pangit okay first of all
5:15 don't say that to just anyone but let me
5:19 just give you this example the uh often
5:22 if you were raised in uh not in the
5:24 Philippines if somebody just said I am
5:28 pangit without any other context it's
5:30 very rude
5:33 and we don't say that so because the
5:35 linguistic is very also visual so you're
5:39 just saying what you're seeing um but
5:42 the word pangit is very multisensorial
5:43 if you were raised in the Philippines
5:45 you will
5:53 bad the thing the energy is uh uh not
5:57 good and so we have so many panga
5:59 talking about taste so it's
6:01 multi-sensorial we have a little bit
6:05 more practice with using that adjective
6:07 I'm using this as an example that it
6:11 means a lot more than meets the eye so
6:13 again when some culture is very
6:15 linguistic it's also very
6:19 visual um why Filipino culture could be
6:22 more westernized by your use of the
6:24 social media is it misses a lot of the
6:27 multi-sensorial people can easily get
6:30 offended by a simple word word because
6:34 the word now is caged in a singular
6:39 meaning um Filipinos are actually um
6:42 maybe prior to social media knows that
6:44 there are many meanings and so they're
6:47 they're they're curious they query what
6:50 do they actually mean rather than just
6:53 the perceive meaning of the receiver so
6:57 that's the gift of uh um the Filipino
7:00 culture and when we're not consuming too
7:03 many too much of the social media um
7:07 also next is the medium okay so like I
7:10 mentioned it's not just the content but
7:14 the medium so if you're consuming news
7:16 uh usually people consume news by just
7:18 reading the headlines and not the fine
7:21 print and so we're becoming more
7:25 activated and uh rather than again
7:27 piggybacking on the last point we're
7:30 wondering what does that really mean
7:33 who's that person why is he writing this
7:36 we become less curious we just kind of
7:39 get on the the case without knowing much
7:42 about the case thinking about the case
7:45 critically and and so as much as social
7:49 media could be uh helpful uh at some
7:52 points it is also quite harmful in many
7:55 ways um finally the one that I would
7:58 share why uh social media could
8:01 potentially westernize the Filipino
8:03 culture because many of the influencers
8:07 are using the lens of uh the Western
8:10 culture I mean just the characters how
8:13 many characters you can write most of us
8:17 are using English in which we know if
8:20 especially if you are it's not so much
8:22 that Filipinos are not able to speak
8:25 English they're known to be bilingual
8:28 but the context many of our
8:33 cultural meanings are not easily uh
8:35 translatable in in English so we could
8:38 speak English we don't need a cultural
8:41 or our language interpret interpreter
8:44 but actually having live in America
8:47 that's what I found is that many
8:48 especially the Immigrant and the
8:52 Filipino American are needing cultural
8:55 interpreters so I just give you five
8:58 reasons on how social media could
9:01 potentially we westernize the Filipino
9:04 culture and always when I'm giving these
9:08 videos what to do about it right um very
9:11 very simple it's uh be aware of your
9:15 awareness of consumption so be aware be
9:17 aware of what you're
9:21 consuming um whom who's writing it and
9:23 why they're writing it to be critical
9:26 about that how long you know are you on
9:30 social media for two hours at a time
9:32 and um and then how much you're
9:35 consuming so just being um
9:38 consumption practice uh consumption
9:42 awareness my friend and then when you
9:45 are closer back to your own body you're
9:49 more relational you can again pick up on
9:51 nuances in the culture not just by the
9:53 meaning you perceive it to be as the
9:59 listener but but widening your l on
10:02 and what do they really mean then you're
10:07 expanding um just your your perception I
10:09 hope this has been helpful uh visit
10:12 kamami juice.com I have many many
10:15 articles there on Mental Health Filipino
10:22 relationship this is Rowan
10:25 samels and psychotherapist here in
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