a lot of my friends have pointed out my conspicuous absence from social media these last few months, and i think i owe anyone (myself, included) who has ever missed my presence a sufficient, albeit delayed explanation. when my father died at the beginning of october last year, i decided to go on a social media fast. it was only supposed to last the ( Read more... )

it was probably one of the most bizarre questions i have ever been asked recently, mainly because it isn’t one i’d expect to hear from anyone. a friend of mine turned to me last week and said, in an enquiring tone, that i don’t read much. i was shocked by it because i will admit that among the many things i am not very modest about, one is the fact ( Read more... )

i have not bothered to open facebook’s recap of my 2014, which is really just a collection of the most popular posts on my page. it is an inaccurate review, because it measures the importance of a photo or status update based on the number of likes or comments it received. i have no control over how people will react to any of my actions on social ( Read more... )

i am many kinds of poser, but what distinguishes me from the regular poser is that i have absolutely no shame in admitting my pretense: it is an essential part of being a social animal. we are usually part of groups that have very specific interests. some of us acquire these interests, sometimes superficially, while others look for people who share ( Read more... )

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the word 'unfriend' has been around since the rise of social networking sites, and the oxford dictionary even declared it word of the year in 2009. the definition is in the title of this entry, and it is a real word, not just something mark zuckerberg suckered us to say, even though microsoft word, or even the livejournal client i'm currently using ( Read more... )

i do not wish to belittle the advocacies of other people. in particular, i do not wish to belittle how people appear to advocate their beliefs. but i think that most people confuse fashion for their passions in that they are more concerned about outward expressions of ideas or trends in the guise of raising awareness. for example, i am passionate ( Read more... )

something very interesting is going on in my facebook account: long-lost classmates from high school have suddenly discovered the internet and one of its social networking sites, and now they appear to be hell-bent on publishing the enormous differences between the past and the present. when i opened my friendster account way way back, i fished out ( Read more... )

my friend honesto franz maximillian nuqui who was the valedictorian of batch 1997 of UP diliman (he was one of 7 summa cum laudes from my batch) tagged me over on facebook in his 25 random things survey. the instructions are to write 25 random things about yourself, then tag 25 of your friends to do the same, including the person who tagged you. i ( Read more... )

i received overflowing comments of concern from my friends when i posted an update of my status over at facebook last week, saying that i was experiencing some chest pains. the pain was tucked underneath the right part of my chest, close to the armpit, and people i knew immediately suggested that i have myself checked. normally i would just ignore ( Read more... )