At a time when physically catching up with your barkada has become a non-option, sharing your passions and stories with others has become essential especially for the younger generation.

For the Smart Barkada—composed of Inigo Pascual, Donny Pangilinan, AC Bonifacio, Hannah Pangilinan, Jayda Avanzado, and Michael Pacquiao— it is also through sharing their passions and stories online that enable them to bring their craft to a whole new level and tick off their goals.

At the recent Smart Barkada Hangout streamed live on Facebook and Kumu, the  six friends had fun with ‘kulitan’ moments, paired together for mini-collaborations and gave away prizes to the viewers at the end of the live show. Most importantly, they touched on how sharing your passions with the rest of the world could broaden your horizons.

It helps turn your passion into a blossoming career

For Hannah Pangilinan, sharing her passion for filmmaking by posting her self-produced vlogs on YouTube has allowed her to find her career path.

“I’ve been doing content creation ever since I was small, and it only became like a job three years ago. It wasn’t really a job before; it was just for fun. Now it’s a full-blown industry and I just so happen to be in the midst of it. Since I’m already here, I might as well see where it takes me, and hopefully it takes me in the right direction,” she says.

The same goes for world record-breaking singer, songwriter, and actor Inigo Pascual, who has found international success by sharing his passions online and has even allowed him to open new opportunities to collaborate with fellow artists.

“There are a lot of singer-songwriters who are able to share their work online and it’s nice that we get to collaborate through that and sometimes get noticed internationally because of just a simple post that you shared online coming from your passion," Inigo says.

"Personally, I experienced a lot of opportunities wherein I was able to communicate with an idol from another country or even potential collaborators. We’re blessed to live in this generation where we can share our passions online and collaborate with different artists as well,” he adds.

Singer-songwriter Jayda Avanzado has also found success in pursuing her passion by taking cues from her own music icon Taylor Swift. Like Taylor, Jayda has been making good use of social media and other online music platforms in sharing her love for music.

“My biggest inspiration is Taylor Swift, especially when she released two albums last year. It was a challenging time for all of us, and we artists needed to think outside the box and think of new ways to connect with our audience. She was one of the people who really set the bar and broke so many records with her two albums Evermore and Folklore. Taylor has always inspired me as a singer-songwriter; I’ve been writing songs since I was 12 years old. Even as a performer she inspires me and she has influenced me with my upcoming show as well as the songs I’ll be releasing,” Jayda shares.

It allows you to connect with more people and become a force for good

 Reaching out to others by sharing your passions and stories online also helps build one’s self-confidence. For Michael Pacquiao, who admits to being very shy, sharing his passion for rap music has helped him connect with more people, who have now become part of his journey as a budding rapper.

 “At this time when we are all connected on social media, I realized how easy and fun it is to meet new people. I now have new friends and fans who love my music and connecting with them is what drives me to keep going,” says Michael.

 As for singer, actress, and vlogger AC Bonifacio, sharing her passion online has allowed her to meet more people who share the same passion as her. Through the platform TikTok, she has found a community that not only thrives in sharing dance videos but also in bringing joy to people.

“Dance is a language that brings everyone together. With TikTok, the new platform that everyone is on, I see a bunch of different nationalities, basically everyone around the world doing the same dance. It just brings everyone together and I love seeing that,” AC says.

Sharing your stories and opening yourself to others, also allows you to live out your passion and purpose. For actor Donny Pangilinan, communicating with others and listening to their stories allows you to also reflect on yourself and be able to become a force for good for others.

“We’re here to lift each other up. Hearing about your passions encourages me to keep pursuing mine. Don’t lose hope that things will get better. Now is the time to reflect and reassess everything in life. It hasn’t been easy the past few months and years but we’re all here to lift each other up," Donny says.

Cling on to your faith, trust God, and keep pushing. Don’t give up because bad seasons don’t last; the lighter side will come very soon. Cling on to what you can—yourself, your friends, and your family who motivate and inspire you and put your focus there.”

Share your passions, share your stories with Double GIGA Stories

As the Smart Barkada has shown, only good can come from sharing one’s passions and stories with others. With Smart’s Double GIGA Stories, connecting, sharing, supporting and inspiring others is simpler.

Double GIGA Stories gives subscribers 2 GB  for Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Tiktok and Kumu guaranteed every day, plus data for all sites! Subscribers can register to Double GIGA Stories via the GigaLife App, which is downloadable on Google Play Store, Apple App Store, and Huawei Mobile Services. They may also dial *123# and choose DOUBLE GIGA.  The offer is available to all Smart Prepaid, Smart Bro, and TNT subscribers.

Philippines' fastest mobile data network

Double GIGA Stories is powered by Smart, the country’s fastest mobile data network as reported by third-party mobile internet analytics firm Ookla® and Opensignal.

Ookla, the global leader in internet testing and analysis, named Smart as the country’s fastest mobile data network for three years in a row now.  It also recently cited Smart as the fastest mobile data network in the second half of 2020 after it achieved a Speed Score™ of 24.99, with average speeds of 20.08 Mbps for download, and 7.42 Mbps for upload, based on 3,915,679 user-initiated tests taken with Speedtest®.

On the other hand, Smart has scored a rare sweep in the April 2021 Philippines Mobile Network Experience Awards* by independent analytics firm Opensignal, beating the competition across all metrics in three essential aspects of service: Coverage (4G Coverage Experience, 4G Availability), Speed (Download and Upload Speed) and Experience (Games, Video and Voice App).

Smart also enables subscribers to take their passions to a whole new level with Smart 5G's superfast speeds and ultra-low latency powered by the country's most extensive 5G network.

To know more about Double GIGA Stories, follow Smart’s official accounts on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

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*Opensignal Awards – Philippines: Mobile Network Experience Report April 2021, based on independent analysis of mobile measurements recorded during the period January 1 – March 31, 2021 © 2021 Opensignal Limited.