Powered by Peanut

I’m no blogger nor am I a content creator or a so-called influencer and neither am I a vlogger – all of which I believe have been proven to greatly impact the lives of so many Filipinos here and abroad. In truth, in recent months, too many people of diverse professions, even the street vendor or the parking valet, participate so strongly on issues that are currently affecting our country.

While I am just an old-fashioned journalist who also did some broadcast work for a little over a decade and for an advocacy I loved but not loved by many, that being education, I continue to impart what I can to help others learn. I love radio. It has always been my platform to share with others on how we can help make the educational experience better for everyone. At RJ AM, I always carried the tagline of “bringing the streets into the classroom and the classroom to the streets” – that was because I firmly believed that learning must always be applied and multiplied. I still do.

Especially today when there is so much happening around us and the need to protect and at the same time advance our youth is at stake. In the social media world, for example, learning continues to evolve as this has provided all of us a platform for instant communication and access to many resources as well as making various connections that enable people to collaborate anytime from anywhere. I didn’t really get that from AM radio until we started to connect our programs to social media platforms for better reach.

It is truly amazing what technology has done our lives. It has at the same time also revealed so much about who we are – including how we think and act. The challenge that the Filipinos are facing today, however, lies in the fact that we are sadly too polarized, as there is just so much political strife. You are either pro or anti somebody and sadly, this dominates the narrative and even more so the headlines.

I’ll be honest and say that I felt this coming a few years back and fast forward to today, I have been hoping to see something fresh – new perspectives that help shape the way we think, especially for the young people. When it came to matters that I generally considered close to my heart, such as issues on insurgency and national security and how this continues to affect our democracy and political landscape, with the next generation in my opinion still being a heavy target, I somewhat fearfully expressed how politics might affect the discourse.

I also worried about the long-standing problems in the educational system and the ways we learn about many different things in this incredibly complex century that includes artificial intelligence and other strategies necessary to be at par with the rest of the world. As I continue to navigate social media in my lifelong educational journey, I am thrilled to discover one new media player that is rapidly and, quite frankly, doing big things across the board, across multiple generations and, more importantly, regardless of color.

Peanut Gallery Media Network or PGMN is giving us a fresh perspective on how we see things instead of the usual spectacle of escalating feuds and enabling people to participate in better conversations to attain significant changes in areas of interest that are at the moment overloaded by extremely polarizing information. While I am not undermining the issues or any issue for that matter, at the very least, I think that PGMN is leveling the playing field with real conversations instead of telenovela types of discussions and elevating the issues relevant to national interests.

When I reflect on my own education journey, considering this is lifelong, I stand on the basis of colorless possibilities that should be explored and made available to everyone by expanding the narrative and turning them into fruit-bearing discussions. By doing so, we also successfully put an end to destructive disinformation. It’s time to veer away from the overly exploited zarzuela plot types that are not helping Filipinos who need to think beyond this playbook so that we can finally understand what the real problems are and, more importantly, help in the solution.

As a teacher who has always promoted the idea of thinking out of the box, PGMN looks like it “gets” what the young people are looking for and in turn is inspiring them to participate in nation building. As a teacher, I like that. Considering that the young ones feel like they are often not part of the conversation, a network such as PGMN is giving them a voice.

Sometimes things start small but, sometimes, it is also in the small things where change and revival can happen. They say that Gen Z’s are “shaking things up” across the political, cultural and even economic landscapes but I also think that they can make a lasting impression with the help and wisdom of the older generations, especially the Gen X connectors – something you may not expect out of the so-called latch key generation.

As both a teacher and a Gen X-er myself, one can’t help but be thrilled in finding the much needed “force” that could finally put the splintering pieces together. Maybe it’s easier said than done – maybe it’s peanuts. But just like Charlie Brown said, keep looking up – that’s the secret of life.