Binay Urges, Use Social Media To Spread Scout Movement

Vice President Jejomar C. Binay urged Boy Scout leaders Thursday to make use of new technologies to spread the “spirit and membership of scouting” while still preserving traditional scouting skills.

“We shall continue to preserve our teaching of age-old scouting skills – knowledge that allows anyone to survive and thrive in a lean environment, away from the amenities of civilization. But we shall bravely take on the challenge of spreading the spirit and membership of scouting using the new terrain and resources that the digital world places at our disposal,” he said.

Binay, the National President, Boy Scouts of the Philippines and the Chairman of the Asia-Pacific Regional Scout Committee, was in Mambajao, Camiguin to attend the 56thAnnual National Council Meeting.

 The Vice President said the growth of social media, including popular social networking sites Facebook and Twitter, was something that scout elders could not ignore or stop.

“Whereas the scouts of old had to master navigation using a compass and a map, the modern day scouts now bear the burden of navigating an increasingly digital world,” he said.

He urged scout leaders to take advantage of the increasing popularity of the social media in the Filipino youth.

“We can no longer exist outside this new world, or pretend that it is something that can be switched on or off at will. It remains active even as we sleep and takes hold of boys and girls even before they first don a neckerchief,” he said.

“Rather than seek to counter it, let us put our minds together and forge ways to capitalize on these new technologies for the benefit of scouting and the youth of the Philippines,” he added.

The Vice President however warned that the “leap to modernization” would not be easy.

“We will need to audit our own base of expertise and fill the gaps wherever these exist. Those of us who are not fluent in these new languages will need to study harder,” he said. /MP