After learning that the Philippines had one of the greatest potentials of Internet growth in the continent, even ahead of Japan, it's not a surprise that it never optimized its growth. The snail-slow growth in recent times is just a repercussion of a complacent political culture that we have.
Tracing the roots, internet is a product of science and technology. If the country doesn't have a strong base for the sciences, we cannot really develop a scientific culture, much less develop scientific and technological thinking, and much less connecting at least half of the population in the web. Although there are many science-oriented high schools that produces quite a big number of scientists in the country, our technological status as a nation remains stagnant as there are no further opportunities to explore after the tertiary level.
More than the scientific sense, is our views on education. It plays a domino effect. If our government does not prioritize education, we cannot develop much science and technology, and without science and technology, perhaps the internet won't bloom, too.
I'm not saying that the 'virtual revolution' is inexistent in the Philippines. It's just taking a very slow pace. After all, we can see our younger (I'm talking of 5-year olds) cousins having facebook accounts, and our parents (to our dismay) also having facebook accounts. The digital divide is going from black to gray. But facebook literacy is not internet literacy.
I am afraid that we are slowly developing a superficial internet culture. That our views of the net is just facebook, twitter, and the likes. Many do not think of the internet as a platform for the media and communication.
But after all, how many Filipinos are connected to the web? 20%? 30%? That's a small amount.
It's time for a radical virtual revolution!
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