Political Socialization in the Philippines: Learning about Democracy 239 resonances with our own self-focused, self-entitled younger Philippine generation. The characteristics of this demographic, also known as the "digital natives," underscore the salient and almost omnipotent role of media, the internet and social networking sites as socializing agents and sources of information. (And even if one were to argue this as an artifact of or confounded by socio-economic status, the almost 100 percent penetration of cell phones with multi-functionality in Philippine society might serve as good counterargument.) Where traditional media requires a communicator and the target audience has a degree of choice to attend or not, the new forms of social media are almost ubiquitous. This is the wave of the future. A study on the effect of the new information and communication technologies for the National Research Council of the Philippines (GastardoConaco, 2015) reported the top three technologies used by the student sample as mobile phones (96.9%), the internet (88.3%) and television (79.0%). The extent of daily use gures (reported in mean hours) were just as high: mobile phones (M=9.4, SD=6.7), internet (M=7.5, SD=6.2), television (M=3.8, SD=3.3). Young people these days spend more time with their gadgets than with other people, it seems. Given these gures, the possibilities and the impact on this new generation are unimaginable. As of this writing, we see how social networking sites have become the new political battleground. Information, disinformation and all manner of political propaganda invade our Twitter, Facebook, and other social network pages and netizens respond, often, without restraint or much reective thought. Uncovering truth in cyberspace is like nding the proverbial needle in the haystack, a rather worrisome prognosis for media, particularly social media, as political socialization agent. Furthermore, given the volume of ideas that barrage us on the internet and social media and our inability to lter truth from falsehood, one wonders about the quality and depth of impact as well as the nature and process of values and beliefs internalized via these channels. But there is no denying the impact of social media. In fact, it played a major role in the election of President Rodrigo Duterte and may play an even bigger role in disseminating information about his governance in the next few years, given the conict between him and traditional media practitioners. Other socializing agents. Two other major sources of inuence and agents of value transmission are the peer group (barkada) and religious institutions (church). The peer group provides validation to the self, lls in for the family in some instances and becomes more potent as the individual develops and slowly moves away from solo family inuence. Peer group inuence picks up particularly when the child starts school, develops ties with other children and participates in various group-based activities in the outside world. Peer group inuence is also notable in interaction with social media inuence. An interesting phenomenon on Facebook, a popular social network site, during the election campaign season in 2016 was people "unfriending" or threatening to