Maybe we have lost the right to not-know.

By Angela Minas

Tags: Worldwide , Digital Natives
Additional tags: Blogathon; digital rights

Therefore, we empower our right to information.

 

This is the digital age. The world is one village.

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I rode a bus on my way to work this morning. As how it usually is in the Philippines, movies are being shown on buses to keep the passengers entertained.

 

It was probably halfway through the film when I got in. I didn't get to know its title, but it was showing some end-of-the-world scene--buildings collapsing, volcano erupting, literally, the ground was breaking. It had enough action to get my attention.

 

Then I thought, these things could possibly happen.

 

Three days before the Sendai tsunami, I posted a video on our website and quoted a Bhutanese saying, "Our real enemy is fire and water, nobody can defeat them". Sadly, it was proven days after...

 

My thought sequence led me to another chaotic instance, as that in Libya. Last night, my dad told me about the bombings and how Gaddafi won't surrender.

 

Yes I have heard about it, but I did not know enough to pull a good conversation with my dad.

 

At some point I realized how passive I was of the information around me.

 

I was so busy with my life's goings-on, I felt guilty about not knowing much.

 

How can I not know?

 

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The digital world is a village. The internet has connected seven continents in such a way that what happened in Japan last week was known to almost all countries in the world in real time.

 

This should be an advantage for our continuous survival.

 

Nonetheless, human beings are somewhat programmed to take for granted what is abundant, e.g., natural resources. As I have realized, I hope we would not want to apply the same for information.

 

As this world is provided with the technology necessary to share them, it is up for us, humans, to actively seek for it.

 

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I believe that the digital age has heightened our right to information. In addition, it has also led to another level: action.

 

Let us attach it with a requisite to human rights: responsibility.