Social Factors That Brought Changes to Courtship Patterns in Filipino Society

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Nothing is constant in this world except change. So as the pattern of courtship is also changing, adapting to new social forces of society. Social factors such as technology, education, mass communication and economy largely affect patterns of mate selection in a Filipino society.

With the advent of latest technologies such as cellphones and information superhighway or the internet, courtship became a-keypad-away thing. There are many stories of marriages where partners first met and developed a relationship through texting or chatting. In the Philippines, there is now easiness for a man to proclaim his attraction to a woman because virtually, majority of the Filipinos have cellphones. One just have to be resourful to know the phone number of someone he wishes to court. Good bye to haranas and pamanhikan of the old barrio. The absence of these technologies, old courtship patterns, like in the Sulod society of the Central Panay Island where cellphones and internet are alien words.

The role of mass media in the facilitation of change is great. Television, specifically, can be most influential medium that catalyzes changes in the society. Advertisement and Television personalities greatly infuence the present cohort of young people. Print media such as magazines and newspapers advertises cellphones and communication gadgets anybody couldn’t resist to have.

These changes are inevitable. Sometimes, we caught ourselves being taken by the flow without even knowing it. We change our society to suit our needs and to yield the demands of the present time.