Facebook seems to have ceased to be just a social network site in the Philippines. It had become the Philippines' virtual bulletin board where everyone may post on everything. Not only does it serve as a link in real-time of families and friends, but for some, it also has served as a "wailing wall" where one may pour out extreme emotions, or satisfy the itch of vanity to let everyone know what he has or what he does from the ordinary.
It became the archipelagic highway that binds us Filipinos. It is the quick bridge to home for overseas workers and an emergency lifeline to friends on foreign shores. Thanks to cheap mobile internet access, affordable android phones, tabs, and power banks.
I remember in our recent travel overseas when our roaming phone subscription suddenly ended and we have a friend to meet. Frantic, we tried FB to communicate. Funny, but practical, how many Filipino overseas workers keep their tabs and FB accounts open 24/7.
Cultural differences are obvious in FB. It seems that only Filipinos use it to the maximum, to keep abreast with new trends, keep family ties, promote products, and political campaigns, and even just to tease or annoy somebody.
Well, that gives the color that is truly and uniquely ours.
Unlike how subscribers of other ethnic groups when their posts are often limited to sharing photos of important family events or simple "hi" which I find so impersonal.
It's us Filipinos who have given FB a new life, a new meaning, and a new purpose, or simply a new FACE far different from its conception in some U.S. college campuses.
Just recently FB was used in the admission of murder, complete with photos of the dead victim. Weird and repulsive.
In these contemporary times, if you want to really know a person, read his posts on FB.
Not a few view FB as a waste of time. Maybe yes and maybe no. Nobody has taken a survey so far. That probably depends on one's perspective and purpose. But definitely not a waste of time for a homesick soul desperately clinging to home, to family, never mind if Facebook, Inc. has to continuously add memory storage in their servers in Oregon, California, or elsewhere.
I'm Thinking of writing a short book out of my FB posts and of friends. A book that you may want to read while waiting for your flight or while your plane is experiencing turbulence (to keep your mind out of it).
"FB Thoughts", as I plan to call it, aims not only to amuse but to give the reader new insights into life's realities, from how ordinary people think or what they think of in the middle of the night... to how they react to social or personal events or on their friend's experiences in life. The short book will also be a silent tribute to the Filipino spirit that is so resilient to life's painful challenges. For so long I have kept the "manuscripts" of two other books written in my mind, only that I do not have the luxury of time to write them. I hope I could do this one. Then FB will really become a book.
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