Digital Portfolio

It was a great time with our prof. I will not mention her to keep her identity confidential. So ma'am, I know you will be reading this, this is all from the heart. In the short time we got to be in class with you, I had so much fun with the classes you gave and how you handled it. You were different from the professors which really made you stand out as a teacher. I could see that you really loved what you were teaching that it motivated me to actually study about the subject. I like that you are so comfortable with your students that you end making "kwento" with us and it's cute and the stories are actually very interesting. I appreciated your discussion about the sexual-self and how mature you reacted when everyone else was being immature about it. It was informative and it's really something that we must learn, especially in the Philippines.

I think one thing I really learned here is to move forward the future with the right perspective. Ever since then, I changed my perspective. Now I would write a letter to myself in the future, because who knows, I might just read this after a while.

The socio-digital self is the life we have in the internet. After the discussions about this, I learned that being able to adapt to modern technology is a must in this generation we live in. A good example why is this pandemic. Notice how almost everything done face-to-face in the past transitioned to online setups. Businesses were done mostly online, and even education is taken online and so much more. However, there is still this responsibility that we must ensure that we use technology properly. This is why we have digital citizenship. This is anjointed in 3 general principles: respecting, educating, and protecting oneself and other. This citizenships purpose is to regulate human behavior in this digital world.

Something that could be brought up in this topic is something i mentioned in the past. Online disinhibition, where a person could feel like he or she is at home in the internet or if he or she is just straight up rude and really jsut uses the internet to harass people. Whatever it is, online disinhibition is the way we see people communicate in the internet.

In the internet, there is something we call "anonymity". It is being anonymous, keeping your real identity away hidden while being able to be open in the internet. As far as I know, most anonymous people enjoy doing stupid things like harass others while there are others who just wants to help out.

Before I go into the political self, I think it would be fair if I started by defining what politics is. Taken from Merriam-webster dictionary, politics is the art or science of government. It is the art and science concerned with guiding or influencing governmental policy and it is also the art and science concerned with winning and holding control over a government. Going deeper into politics, there is more that I have confirmed to be true.

Politics is concerned with power. Without it, an individual can't really be a part of it or in other words, they won't be elected. It is also clearly observed that inequalites are seen within societies that whoever holds the most power is the one that gets to lead the place. I learned that politics is even pesonal as there are countless examples we see today that politics makes a person in most cases, for example: DDS in the Philippines, and Trump followers in America. I think that explains that.

This is a good one. So the question is, when do we know if we discover life's meaning? Humans naturally try to become better and make reflections about themselves They make mistakes and learn and make mistakes and learn and it keeps on going until a person is satisfied. When could we say if sa person is satisfied? It could be if he or she is happy or if he or she is healthy. Maybe it's when a person feels good? Based on the learning, satisfaction is something mentioned a lot when it comes to discovering the meaning of life. But is there more to it?

In the inner soul, there is spirituality and religiosity.

Spirituality or the spiritual self is the most powerful part of an individual. This does not talk only about the present but it goes about finding meaning. I personally think this is one of the most important parts since this is spirituality is different for all individuals. It talks about the connections of a person in different aspects of the individuals existence and it goes beyond physical realities. It is sacred and transcendent. Personally, my spiritual self is being connected with God. There are many times that I act like I have no faith, but I really do believe that God exists and everything revolves around him. My spiritual self is my relationship with God. Despite making bad choices and going against Him, He still loves me unconditionally.

This the part where I talk about emotions and what I learned from it. There are two things to be discussed which are the Emotional Intelligence and Emotional Regulation.

So basically Emotional intelligence is defined to be the ability of knowing or understanding your emotion and to act according to what is, let's say, civilzed. It is being able to cope with what is "normal" for the environment. It is also being able to understand the emotions of others and managing the emotion of the self and what others are feeling aswell. I can't say that I am always emotionally intelligent. There are times that I just feel done with what I am doing and instead coping up or doing something about it, I just give up. Now I know that things like this happen and the best practice is to be emotionally intelligent. It was thought in GED101 that there are models that may help in being emotionally intelligent. There is the one Goleman (2005) came up with which defines emotional intelligence and how to achieve it. There is also Bar-On's model (1997) that is about expressing and thinking things throught and how to act on it. There are many more models that was shown but these two were the ones that really caught my attention. I think I could see improvements in being emotionally intelligent after knowing these things. In the previous terms, I've been giving up on a lot of tasks which leads to me failing the subject. Right now, it's the same load and I am managing. I even started talking to those who just wants to talk about what's going on in their head.

Cognition, memory, and intelligence will be three important things that I want to talk about here. Cognition is defined as the process of acquiring knowledge and understanding through thought, experience, and senses. With that definition alone, I think I may have covered this part. But going deeper into it, cognition is something that an individual has that empowers them to hold up in their own way. It's the higher process of thinking that makes a person special since the mental section truly is complex.

Memory is where knowledge is stored to be used later on. It could be short-term, long-term, or sensory memory. After learning these three, I realized that there is only so little in my long-term memory. Only actual times I loved and things that must be remembered to be able to get a job. Short-term memory occurs a lot in online classes nowaday, and I am sorry. With the pandemic going on, I still haven't adjusted so at one moment I thought I was learning something new and valueable, then moments later I totally forget. I still think having to make use of the memory is important and crucial for most things today.

Intelligence is defined as the person's capacity for learning, planning, understand, solving problems with logic, and creativity. These are the "smart" people we all know. I also found it interesting that there are multiple intelligences that are unique for each individual. I took a test and got the result of being musically intelligent. I was pretty happy about it knowing I am a music freak. I learned that we can't really define a person's intelligence based on what they about things. There may be things that I know that others don't understand as much and vice versa. So in a way, I guess what I learned is that everyone is actually intelligent.

This is where people associate themselves with material possessions where they relate to. It is likely that people will buy the things that they personally relate to. For me, it is musical technologies like microphones and guitars.

To make this part simple, the socio-digital self is the life a person has within the internet. Before having GED101, I used to think that the physical life explains everything within a persons internet life. I found out I was wrong. In the internet, social media is something that us humans use to interact with one another digitally. Through social media, people interact with one another but it is not happening face-to-face so you don't have to actually be there to be there. Hope that makes sense. I learned that there is actually a term that defines that. It is called the "Online Disembodiment." So usually, in social media, people don't really have to show who they actually are, so they could argue all they want which is something that I will talk about later.

So the digital identity is the identity the person has in the internet. I thought that this was something only applicable in social media, turns out it is applicable for all your indentity in the internet. A good example is in games. In my games, I am identified as Cookie, and no one really knows my actual identity.

Then we go to the Online Disinhibition Effect. There are two: Benign disinhibition and Toxic disinhibition. Benign dishibition from my understanding is when a person is more open and more comfortable in the internet. These are the people who would be more interactive in the internet and just feels way better whenever they get interact with others from the internet, without necessarily knowing the actual identity of other people. These are the kind people in the internet. From how I see it, I think I am one of those hehe. Then there is Toxic disinhibition which is toxic.There are many of these and the best example really are trolls in the internet. They do not reveal their identity and all they really want to do is piss people off and trigger someone as much as possible. They find pleaseure and this and it's cringe.

In the Social Self, there are three types discussed: the Cultural Self, Socio-Digital Self, and the Material/Economic Self. I will be going through them one at a time.

The Cultural Self is referring to how culture has influenced the self. From the words of Edward Burnett Tylor, “Culture is the complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, law, art moral, custom, and other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society." The more we understand about the nature of culture, the more we could understand the influences within ourselves. We could see it normally in Filipino families. When the parents are conservative, chances are the children will be raised like that as well. Another example is the Filipino culture of doing the "mano po" to elders as a form of respect when they are greeting them. Saying "po" and "opo" is another timely example that influence the lives of Filipino people.

Another something that we must get our attention to is the Bronfenbrenner's Ecological Systems Theory by Urie Bronfenbenner in 1935. This explains the developments of a persons social development. The theory includes the Microsystem, the Mesosytem, Exosystem, Macrosystem, and the Chronosystem. Understanding this will make it clear of the influences our family, friends, evironment, our idols, and many more, make for us and how their influences impacts our lives in the long run.

The Individualism-Collectivism model has also been something that caught my interest. So basically, it is a model that shows that a person who has been focused more on the individual self shows that they are competitive and reliant to the self. Then there are those who are reliant to other people values relationships, and they are those who wants to maintain a healthy relationship with people, just like me.

Lastly, there is the I vs. Me that shows that "I" is the person we know to be ourselves. It is what we want to do with ourselves and is something that could be seen through self-reflecting. On the other hand, "Me" is what we want others to see in ourselves.Honestly, when I read about this it was so confusing then it turns out it was this simple to explain.

The sexual self is probably one of the most sensitive topics there is to tackle around here in the Philippines. Usually in a Filipino household, talking about the sexual self or sex is seen as taboo, but I think otherwise.

From what I learned and confirmed from the lessons I have taken up in GED101, is that a persons sex is determined the moment the person is born. A penis for a male and a vagina for the females. The sex is permanent but the gender is something else. Gender is something that isn't assigned to you the moment you were born. Instead, this is something the person has to figure out on their own. As a person grows up, sexual urges will come. It is normal for humans to engage sexual intercourse to satisfy their sexual desires or urges. Although engaging sexual intercourse is satisfying for a human, it has consequences when done recklessly. Careless sexual intercourse will put themselves at risks in getting diseases called the the sexually-transmitted diseases or the STDs which are still hard to cure up to this day. With that being said, a person must always be aware of precautions and the right mindset to take care of himself or herself when it comes to their sexual lives.

In my case, this is how it goes. I am born with a penis, so yes I am male. For my gender identity, I am identified as a straight person. I am very much in love with women, in fact I am courting this special person for almost 2 years now. I love her. Anyways, yes. When it comes to sexual urges, I am avoiding it now as much as possible. I know that there is so much to risk when it is done. I don't want to engage sexual intercourse with as many girls as I can because I know they are not trophies. I want to be able to be intimate with the person I love who I will be spending the rest of my life with in the future. I've done mistakes along the way when it comes to this topic, pulling off risky things to satisfy myself and I regret it. But as humans, I think we could always be better tomorrow than we are today. That's what I'm trying to achieve.

So this dimension consists of two traits: the Physical self and the Sexual Self. I will be going through it one by one.

The Physical Self from my understanding the self shaped biologically or what we call heredity. There is a whole explanation of what hereditary is. For me, I got the nose from my dad, which I am happy about. I get to brag that I have that "matangos" nose. I also got my eyes from my dad or from my dad's side. Ever since I was young, my eyes were always noticed because they were so big, even though I'm not trying to make them look big. Before, I thought of it as a curse because I get teased about it in my family. Today though, I'm thankful for it. I think it makes me look cute.