Young Blood
‘Click!’
By Joey Kiele M. LumainThe offline world of dating is complicated. To meet your potential mate, you have to find him or her in the university, at work, and in social gatherings.
The offline world of dating is complicated. To meet your potential mate, you have to find him or her in the university, at work, and in social gatherings.
The retired cardinal archbishop of Manila, Gaudencio Rosales, had a ready answer when asked, upon returning from the conclave in Rome, why the media failed to predict the identity of the new pope. “God does not read social media,” he said.
In a world where the number of “likes” in a display picture or a status is all that matters, where nothing can possibly be more threatening than not having someone who cares about your posts in your profile, and where you can be socially accepted if you repost in-the-bandwagon yet nonsensical and even profane and derogatory posts, how can we be so sure that all of these people interacting with us are our “friends”?
“Gigi” in today’s headlines is not the love-struck girl (Leslie Caron) serenaded by Maurice Chevalier in the 1958 MGM musical. Jessica “Gigi” Reyes is—or was?—chief of staff of Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile. She cosigns checks and whips straying subordinates into line. She also rides shotgun for JPE. “Hypocrites,” she dubbed senators who assailed her boss’ P1.6 million “Christmas” doles to 18 friendly legislators. Others closer to the scene will discuss “Ma’am Gigi” in days ahead.
The television commercials of candidates in the May elections have begun although the campaign period does not begin until Feb. 12, a violation of the rule against premature campaigning. Politicians split hairs by saying that these early commercials do not urge the voters to “vote” for the candidates, so they do not violate the ban [...]
FIRST OFF, an irresistible aside. Why on earth would you watch J-Lo and complain later that you were shocked by the concert’s loudness? In fact, why would you claim to have finer sensibilities—“I have high taste in music”—and watch J-Lo in the first place? When in fact at about the same time J-Lo did MOA’s The Arena to a full house, Dave Grusin and Lee Ritenour were doing PICC to a fairly empty one? The latter was magical by the way.
A teacher of mine, an American Maryknoll nun, once shared a piece of advice her mother had given her: “Don’t put down on paper what you don’t want to see on the front page of the New York Times.”
We live in the age of instant coffee, instant messaging, Instagram, instant everything. Technology makes everything so much easier—sharing photos from a crazy weekend beach trip, stalking that crush you saw at one party but never got the courage to talk to, or putting up a link to the video of this song that you can’t get out of your head so that your friends can get major LSS, too.
MOST YOUNG people nowadays have either a Facebook, Twitter, or YouTube account. Some actually have all three. Having an account on these social networking sites is the easiest way to express who you really are. The Internet makes it easy for us to get noticed, to stand out in the crowd, through a stunning photo, an intriguing tweet, or a funny video.
I want to share my opinion regarding the Cybercrime Prevention Act that is presently drawing different comments and reactions in the public arena.
I’m glad several senators have bestirred themselves to try to undo the harm they did for voting for the Cybercrime Prevention bill. That piece of legislation earned the ire of netizens and media practitioners alike, as seen in editorials and widespread sentiment in social media condemning it. Teofisto Guingona III has asked the Supreme Court to nullify the libel penalty provisions of the law. And Chiz Escudero and Alan Peter Cayetano pledged to sponsor bills to amend the same thing.
It’s been 15 years since my first High Blood article was published right after I retired as a professional librarian from a local international school. I am so grateful that I had the opportunity to learn the basics of computer writing and surfing on the information highway from the annual faculty workshops that our school conducted. There have been many programs and applications invented since I first learned word processing and PowerPoint presentations. I have not stopped individually pursuing the chance to learn more applications at this ripe age of 75. My old reliable desktop computer saw me seeking information through the laptop stage and now the tablet.
