“Noong araw… noong kapanahunan namin… kami nga noon… blahblahblah.”


Most of us are probably familiar with declaratories that begin with these phrases. We have heard them uttered to us by those older than us, especially those way older than us like our grandparents.

My mama (my maternal grandparent), for example, loves to use these all the time, especially during reunions when everyone’s around, just like the one we had last Christmas in our province. She would talk often about how things were during their time. These nostalgic sermons are often prompted when she chances upon a cousin glued on a laptop screen, another cousin busy with a psp portable or what-have-you. My mama is a pure ilocana and so she would attempt to start her sermon in Tagalog by saying, “Alam niyo, nuong kahapunan namin…” (then, a hearty laughter follows)

I have heard criticisms made on some occasions, especially by older folks, on how much young people nowadays spend and rely pretty much on the use of computers and other gadgets. Some would say that kids might or tend to lose their creative potential because of too much reliance on computer. Instead of doing their art works on real canvass or paper, kids as young as 8 years old now prefer to do it with programs on their PCs. Still, others would say that kids might lose other skills like researching because of the internet; or lose their capacity for imagination; good reading and writing, etc.

I used to sway a little towards this kind of view. However, there was a really good point made in the film lecture that was shown in class last week. What if we are actually at this point ushering into a totally new kind of era of creativity? A new brand of creativity that is being hampered not just by Intellectual Property policies but is being blocked also by an obstacle people call home.

I get the point when kids are being grounded or banned from using the PC because of too much gaming, too much that their school grades start dropping. But then we have stories of people who dropped out of school, these people who spent much time glued on their screens, and these same people who eventually became successful. In fact, a good number of billionaires listed by Forbes Magazine share this common story of geek drop outs turn rich.

Well, I’m still not sure, though. My old folks may have a point. People who might say otherwise may also have a point. Maybe, the difficulty of seeing the whole picture is because we are still in this in-between point. But then no matter what age or era we are in, I’d say one formula would always do good to cultivate whatever potential a person might have– the stoneage father could have said this, same could be true with the renaissance parent, the modern and contemporary – that is, “Kung san ka Masaya, suportahan ta ka.”

by Vann dela Cruz entry #8