Guest User

Sensible Netnonsense

Where Pinoy pop culture and the digital domain collide

by Ignatius Javellana, Philippines

Subscribe to this blog

On weddings and blogs

May 26, 2009 10:31

I attended the wedding of one of my oldest friends last Saturday. It was a short and small ceremony, attended mostly by the couple's closest friends and family, but it was an elegant ceremony nonetheless, celebrated in a very beautiful church followed by a most enjoyable and light-hearted reception in a posh country club.

What struck me the most about the entire wedding was that at the reception (where I was asked to emcee the proceedings along with another good friend of the couple), we started a "How well do you know the couple?" thing in true Facebook App fashion--10 questions, multiple choice, and each table had its respective ABC cue cards.

True enough, it was as fun and entertaining as the couple had hoped.

One of the questions was the particular detail of how my friend popped the question to her bride, back when they were still going out. The story of his proposal was quite unique and quirky--a trait shared by the couple. But what left an impact on me was the groom's comment after the trivia question was asked of the audience, and everyone answered correctly. He said, and I quote: "Wow, I guess everyone does read my blog."

In truth, more often than not, we as a society are subscribed to a whole range of friends and family's blogs. And usually, based on experience, we tend to miss out on the day-to-day details of their lives as narrated in their blog. But when it's something as big and important as a wedding proposal (and the romantic comedy that ensued afterward), I guess now it's safe to say that your audience will pay attention.

That's the thing about Filipinos in cyberspace--because as a culture, we are very social and love to keep in touch with friends and family (and because we are quite the gossips, hehe), you can bet that something like this won't easily slip past us.

When I give talks and presentations about social media--social networking and blogging in particular--and tell my audience that more than 85 percent of active Internet Filipinos read blogs and are part of a social network, that's just a statistic to us, to me. But in an event like this, it puts a face on the statistic--these numbers are real. Filipinos really are wired and connected.

Now, we're just waiting for details on their honeymoon, which will be in New Delhi. "Wow," everyone said. "How extravagant!" It's actually not very, says the couple. New Delhi just happens to be the street name of their new house...

« Prev

Report offensive

Talkback

junv

View profile

Send mail

junv says...

May 31, 2009 23:35

Comment

Report offensive

About Ignatius Javellana

Iggy Javellana, who is now the Head of Advergaming for Level Up! Games Inc., is what you would call a "wired" individual: Online practically 24/7. He's an avid gamer, satiric blogger, budding musician and independent film enthusiast, and still hopes to one day become a rock star.