How Social Media is creating the Filipino Community

What is social media? In common speak, social media is where people gather together and express themselves using the Internet platform. 


In the Philippines, there is now an estimated 33 million Internet users, of which 26 million goes online to chat, update and tweet using Facebook. In my estimation, I think 33 million is not the exact figure. For one, I consider those who have cellphones and are using these contraptions to communicate with their friends through Facebook and Twitter as part of the growing community of users.


In the social media sphere, there are three kinds of people who engage themselves in this: one, everyone of us is a user. All who engage in social media are users of the platform. We are all creators of content. 


However, there are some creators who develop platforms so that users like us would experience more interactivity than what we are used to. These are the applicators. They are users but transcend their status higher than others because they have the technical know-how.


Lastly, there are those who dominate the sphere by being creators and applicators. They are a unique kind. They understand the language of the sphere and create platforms themselves for their creations. I call them "dominators".


As technology becomes more user-friendly and simole, more and more users are becoming both creators and applicators. What is unique in the social media sphere is the fact that you can become an applicator without inventing an application--by merely using the present platform and create a model or a more defined one you become an applicator without realising it.


Wordpress users know what I am talking about here, same as Blogger platform users. By transforming a mere layout into a personalised one, users become creators of appplications.


Now, what is entirely delicious at this point is the slow but sure creation of a distinct community in the netsphere---the Filipino's.


Yes, some may say, this Pinoy community is partially racist because it always trumpte the Pinoy success each and every time. But, that, my friend, is normal. In every developing community, the obvious assertion or affirmation of distinctiveness is really racial by nature. 


As we all become engaged by technology, we consciously or unconsciously are becoming part and are engaging in the creation of a community which we call our own. Every single voice out there expressed in tweets and updates on FB is part of a growing consciousness that slowly emanates whenever the situation calls for it. 


What is profoundly delicious is the observation by many, that this community is expressing itself in globalist form. We are distinctly Pinoy without using the vernacular. We are differentiating ourselves from the rest of the world without overly doing it. 


What is more---we are dominating the conversation by being Pinoy. And the world is loving it.

Jessica Sanchez saved by American Idol judges--wrong move. America is right when it voted Sanchez out

It came as a shocker---the best singer in the competition was voted off by the American public. It happened before in the case of Jennifer Hudson, who, after the competition, went on to win a Grammy and an academy award for both her singing and thespian skills.

Let me be frank and say that we should not blame America for what happened. America did not really vote along racial lines. 

I blame Filipinos for alienating Jessica Sanchez from the rest of America. I blame Filipinos for being "racists".

Before you hit me, let me explain why I think we, Filipinos, are to blame for what happened to Jessica today.

Jessica Sanchez was born and raised in America by a hard-working father, a Mexican who works in the US military and a Filipina. The two countries where Jessica's parents came from, are formerly US colonies. These two countries have strong relationships with America since the early years of US imperialism. 

When the American republic was being formed, these two races were already in America. Mexicans and Filipinos, along with Chinese, Indians, Japanese and other Asians have been in America since the very first time the Federal government was being formed. Hence, like Negros, these races have already been infused or synthesized so to speak with the American public. They are as Americans, as the "whites" or the Anglo-Saxons.

America has accepted this as "fact"--hence, the social harmony now being enjoyed there. What was then a "white supremacist" America of the past has been transformed into a tolerant America of today.

Meaning, in the eyes of America, Jessica is as American as Hollie Cavanagh. 

Now, here's the thing.

Every single time Jessica performs and every video uploaded in the internet, there is always some Filipino out there, claiming to "own" Jessica and trying to "pronounce to the world" her being Filipino and of how, she must "represent her race."

This confuses Jessica and even America. For Jessica, she is American. She was born in America and is a legitimate American citizen. She knows her mother is Filipino and her father, Mexican but deep down inside of her, she's pure American. Why would she represent Filipino, when Jessica is really not purely Pinoy, nor purely Mexican. Her blood is American.

If a particular race is claiming Jessica and trying to tell America that Jessica is not American, but Asian Filipino, why will America vote for a non-American as the top "American idol"? The contest is about looking for an AMERICAN IDOL, not an Filipino-American IDOL or a Latino Americano as AMERICAN IDOL".

I asked Filipinos in my earlier posts to refrain from claiming Jessica as our own. Jessica is not just for Filipinos, but for everybody. Fact is, Jessica is soooo good, she belongs to the world! Jessica Sanchez, ladies and gentlemen, is the property of the world, not by Filipinos.

Whenever Filipinos rant about "Pinoy power" and Pinoy this and that, we are exposing our racism. Remember that Jessica is running in a competition in America, and not Miss Universe. She's running to become the idol of the Americans in terms of singing and not Miss World. 

In a very surprising move, the American Idol judges saved Jessica Sanchez from total elimination. The judges thought that America decided wrong when a majority voted Sanchez out of the competition.

What judges did was admirable but, actually, was totally wrong. It was unfair to the other contestants. It exposed their prejudgments very early in the game.

Really now, when that Korean-American crooner was ousted, I had a feeling that the same thing will happen with Jessica. For one, minority groups in America have a weaker voice than the rest. In America right now, the minority are really Asians, and not Negros. Since the early 1980's, Negros have been integrated successfully into the American society. They are considered mainstream already, not minority.

What consist of the minority groups are Asians, such as Filipinos, Chinese, Koreans and Latinos. They are the new minority groups.

Now, many people think that America is still "white America". The pattern of voting, many people say, depends on color lines. 

In Sanchez's case, America did not vote along racial lines. America just did what it is supposed to do--vote for their idol. Of course, Americans will never vote for someone who claims to be of a totally different race as their "idol"--it is unfair and beneath them to do just that.

Again, let me emphasize this, and this is a lesson for Team Jessica.

Jessica Sanchez is AMERICAN, not Mexipilipino or FilMexican. She must act the way she was born and raised.

Pinoy

Is there hope for us, Filipino?

For as long as there are still some good men among us, hope still flutters.