Filipino social media users are calling for an investigation into a Facebook page, claiming that the subjects who appear in its posts are being used merely for clout.
“This page needs to be investigated. Why? Romanticizing Poverty and forcing their kid to eat less on camera for views,” one user posted.
Several posts from the Facebook page have raised concerns as they appear to “romanticize” poverty. In some of the posts, people speculate that the page owners are deliberately forcing their children to eat less on camera to gain more views. This has sparked outrage among viewers, who believe that such content exploits the struggles of others for the sake of attention and social media clout.
People then took to social media to share their thoughts about the said post.
One user wrote, “bat ba ang hilig ng mga pinoy na makitang naghihirap mga anak nila haha [Why are Filipinos fond of seeing their children suffering? Haha].”
“Naaawa ako sa mga batang ganyan, sina subject sa kahirapan tapos gina glamorize [I feel sorry for those kids, subjected to poverty then being glamorized],” a second user wrote.
Related: Romanticizing poverty is a really bad coping mechanism
A third user wrote, “Scripted. Halatado. Nasa probinsiya, ba’t mga asin at kape ang ipaulam sa mga bata? Ang lawak ng lupain na puwedeng taniman ng mga gulay para may mapagkunan ng masarap at masustansiyang pagkain. Puwede pa sila mag-alaga ng ilang native na manok at pato, para may pagkunan ng ulaming itlog at minsan minsan ay karne. Mga tamad na lang ang walang ulam o mag-ulam ng ganyan pag nasa probinsiya [Scripted. Obvious. In the province, why are salt and coffee served to children? The vast land where vegetables can be planted for a source of delicious and healthy food. They can even raise some native chickens and ducks, so there is a source of egg dish and sometimes meat. Only the lazy ones don’t have dishes or eat dishes like that when in the province].”
More social media users expressed their concern for these kinds of posts with some of them pointing out the welfare of the kids.
The page hasn’t released a statement, nor deleted the said content as of this writing.
The line “masarap maging mahirap” is slowly becoming a common mindset for many Filipinos lately, which may be a form of coping mechanism against all the hardships that are battering people right now. We need to tread this mentality carefully–we can’t fall entirely into this type of thinking because there is nothing nice about struggling to put food on the table or pay bills.
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