ARE YOU WORTH FACEBOOKING?

When Facebook first hit the Philippine youth, I was all glum about it. I’ve been maintaining Friendster, a blog and Multiply, and I didn’t want to get into another social networking fiasco, like a lost underwear in a laundry bag full of dirty clothes.

But then again, one writing assignment got me into Facebook. My client wanted me to get in touch with him over there. I couldn’t get why he wanted that but I acquiesced anyway. So voila! I got a Facebook account.

At first, I was so busy stocking it with information and then I got tired. I let it sleep for awhile, just approve friend requests of friends I know, and then suddenly, my photos were stuffed. Turns out, photos of friends which have you in it are also uploaded in your profile. Coolness. Now I don’t have to upload. People can just do it for me. I poked around for more fun, and found poker. I told myself, “Finally, something worth Facebook-ing.” I climbed up the ranks pretty easily and my online poker career started there.

But I didn’t want to be unfair to Facebook. I knew it was so much more than poker. So I published some of my poetry there and updated on my friends’ walls. (Walls are like their corkboards. You can write or put up anything there and whatever you put up, it is understood to be intended for the one who owns the “wall”.) Then I started checking it out everyday. More and more friends added me up and the funny thing is that, most of these people are people I knew waaaay before, like elementary buddies. High school acquaintances in Cebu ask how I was and I knew they all saw my latest pictures.

I say I also enjoy looking at how they were..and I think this is what we do Facebook for. I got in touch with a friend I made during first grade. She used to be bullied because she had a birthmark on her forehead but now she’s turned out to be a really pretty girl. Actually pretty was an understatement! She looks like a model! I also discovered some handsome boys during elementary and high school who turned out to be not so handsome after all.

Then I came into a very profound realization: ugly ducklings and have-beens, that’s what Facebook is for. Facebook runs almost always on autopilot; even if you’re not updating, you will be updated because other people are always looking around. Facebook is a good avenue to catch up how everybody’s been, and notice that Facebooking (yes honey, it’s a verb now) will eventually define how you’d be feeling for the rest of the day. Frankly, I feel a lot better every after I Facebook. I’d see old friends who have been successful and old flames who turned out to be not worth my time. LOL.

All I can say is that Facebook is out to build more and more avenues for “catching up”. Ugly ducklings and have-beens, Facebook is for you. Then again, a friend asks, “What about those who aren’t either?” Well, they could just keel over and die a virtual death. Then we’ll all bury their ashes under a virtual rug and we could go on Facebooking without them.

So, are you known for something yet? Are YOU worth Facebooking?

Email me your silent violations via live_out_loud@ymail.com. I’ll get back to you when I’m not Facebooking.

What Kids Do During Holy Week

For most of the kids, Holy Week is just another dragger. You know, malls and bars are closed, roads are quiet and if you don’t have any other hobby that doesn’t involve cable TV or Internet, you’d probably be better of sleeping. Hours creep slower and this Holy Week, the warm weather are challenging the shortest of tempers.

See, when you’re young, you always view holiday differently. Yes, no matter what kind of holidays they are. And holidays put one over the other mean just one thing---a break. Whether it’s a good break or not, I’ve come up with a few things noticed about how kids cope with bore-fest.

DVD Marathons

In your Friendster or Facebook profile, you don’t really need to say that you love watching movies or TV series. Because seriously, everybody loves watching movies and TV series. It’s just that, the kinds of movies and TV series that we prefer are different. When we’ve got a lot of time on our hands, that’s the time when we start watching ALL the movies we could have watched but missed due to midterm papers, dentist appointments or on-the-spot drinking sessions. Why do we do this? The truth is, we do this so we can have more things to talk about with our friends when the Holy Week is almost over. Hehe.


Book Marathon

Just the printed version of the DVD marathon. Refer to the intentions above.

Beach Hopping

Okay, maybe not really beach hopping but beach bumming. Living in a tropical paradise has its perks after all. When “going out of town” just means a 10 minute boat ride to the neighboring island with fabulous beaches, going out of town gets pretty tempting when placed before a string of work-free days. Besides, beaches always have their own way of being unconditionally loved by most teenagers. Like chicken gravy.

Some Cleansing

Supposedly, the Holy Week is designed for some soul cleansing, conscience knocking and meat avoidance. For teenagers this is also a good time to do some cleansing, electronic or otherwise. For one, I used up some of my time clearing up my e-mail inboxes and some online photo albums. It also is a good time to do some reflection on my schedule. Juggling 3 jobs and my lifestyle costing more than how it used to, I needed to seriously get my act together. So what I did was come up with a list of things I needed to do when the Holy Week bids goodbye and a written promise that I’m going to finish those duties. (Fingers crossed.)

The Holy Week has no plans of leaving yet, so if you’ve got more activities for me, as long as they’re legal and within the 8000 zip code, I might be game for it.