Pinoy Kinship in Facebook Multiply. MySpace. Friendster. Facebook. These are just some of the more familiar social network sites on the web that have attracted millions of users, Filipinos included. For the purposes of this paper, we focus on Facebook, currently the hands down leader in social network services (SNS) with over 500 million users worldwide, 16 million of which are Filipinos (http://www.checkfacebook.com). We will look into the reasons why Facebook is so popular among Filipinos. We will try to interpret the implications of the Facebook phenomenon by proposing some observations which shall be guided by existing scholarship. Before we delve deeper into Facebook we will provide a brief definition of key terms as proposed by scholars studying the SNS phenomenon. Defining Social Network Sites Danah Boyd and Nicole Ellison (2007) define social network sites as “web-based services that allow individuals to (1) construct a public or semi-public profile within a bounded system, (2) articulate a list of other users with whom they share a connection, and (3) view and traverse their list of connections and those made by others within the system.” Social network services all over the web share similar key features, though each may vary in the way “new information and communication tools, such as mobile connectivity, blogging, and photo/video-sharing” are incorporated into their offerings. Some sites cater to a diverse audience and a wide range of interest while others attract users “based on common language or shared racial, sexual, religious or nationality-based identities” (Boyd & Ellison, 2007). Although the terms "social network site" and “social networking site” both mean the same web services and are often used interchangeably, Boyd and Ellison (2007) prefer to use the term “network” over “networking” for two reasons: emphasis and scope. “Networking" emphasizes relationship initiation, often between strangers. Boyd and Ellison (2007) observe that many SNS users are not necessarily “networking” or looking to meet new people although this is possible on these sites; instead, they are primarily communicating with people who are already a part of their extended social network. The unique feature of SNS that differentiate it from other forms of computer-mediated communication is not that they allow individuals to meet strangers but rather they enable users to “articulate and make visible their social networks.” Networking is not the primary practice on many of the SNS , rather it is meeting between “latent ties” who share some offline connection (Boyd & Ellison, 2007). Technology and culture: the angle on kinship Kinship as a cultural function or trait can explain why Filipinos are so fond of kamustahan, balitaan, tsismisan. We strike up conversations with complete strangers and, the first thing we ask – where are you from? -- even before we ask their names. The exchange usually progresses to asking about so and so from that particular place. It seems Filipinos know somebody from everywhere and we always seek some degree of affinity with the people we interact with. The Filipinos' sense of kinship with its extended familial ties explains something about why social network sites like Facebook find resonance in our contemporary cultural consciousness. We have this inherent need or – lust – for communication, a need to maintain and expand our family network; to keep in touch with relatives, friends and friends of friends. For the Filipino, friends are actually the extension of the family. “The family is what matters most to Filipinos, according to the Social Acceptance Project (2003) “everything else that they consider important is anchored on the family.” A blog by Jim Brown (www.articlesnatch.com), succinctly describes how Filipinos value family: “In the Philippines, the family's importance is clearly on the top of all the priorities. Filipinos connection with family is arguably incomparable to any other race or nationality. Filipinos will do just about anything for their families. The Filipinos who leave the country and work overseas, they do that just for their family. They endure all the hardships in a foreign land just to send money at home. Such is the love for family by Filipinos that you would almost see the majority of families living in just one place. Filipinos value family more than anything in this world.” This observation is affirmed by a study titled Filipino Concept of Subjective Well-Being and its Correlates. The survey done in 2008 sought to find out what makes the Filipino happy. The study revealed that although money can help, it is not at the top of the list. “Filipinos still point to the non-material as the enduring cause of their joy and well-being (Doyo, 2008).” The most prominent theme that stood out was the familial theme, Filipinos believe that “happiness comes, first and foremost, from having a happy, harmonious and healthy family.” Next to the family as a source of happiness is being with friends; “our interest in good interpersonal relationships goes beyond the family group (Doyo, 2008).” It is not so hard to see how communication figures into the Filipinos' sense of kinship. Communication and the technologies that enable it serve as the link that holds it all together. We can conclude then how communication technologies assume much importance in the Filipino's concept of well-being. This should also explain why despite poverty for example, the Filipino would endure hunger, forego a kilo of rice and opt to buy cellphone load. The diaspora of Filipinos around the world due to economic reasons is somehow related to the growth in demand for communication technologies. The latest survey shows that two major groups using the Internet are the youth and overseas Filipino workers. Between the two, it is the OFW sector that clearly has economic significance being the only sector that has kept the Philippine economy afloat. It is safe to project that as the export of human resources increases rapidly, internet penetration and SNS usage will also surge. SMS, the internet A research studying messaging trends found that SMS (short messaging service) is still the medium of choice for Filipinos. In fact, Filipinos are still the world champions of texting beating the Americans by a wide margin. The reason given was that cellphones and SMS plans are a lot cheaper than computers and broadband connections. (Dimacali, 2010). However, this trend reflects more of the local communication traffic rather than the outbound-inbound traffic since international text exchanges are still quite expensive. As more Filipinos go abroad to work, the demand for inexpensive modes of communication also rises. Social network sites afford our OFW families the cheapest way to keep in touch and this is shown in the Internet usage statistics. OFWs are believed to number around 8.5 to 11 million, not counting the estimated 3 million undocumented Filipinos working illegally abroad. All in all, OFWs comprise about 10-11% of the total Philippine population. If we extrapolate the numbers, it would mean one in every ten Filipino family has a relative or a member working abroad. What we might call as the “globalization of the Pinoy” has not diminished the distinctly Filipino sense of kinship. Filipinos nurture ties with family members halfway around the globe and use the technology as they become available and accessible to keep the ties intact despite the distance. The Internet, and now the social networking sites have become the latest addition to technologies that extend these kinship ties. Viewed from the angle on kinship patterns, what make these new communications technology appealing to the Filipino is its synchronicity and interactivity. Being synchronous and instant, it has the effect of “collapsing the distance between the workplace and the home (Ugarte, Pingol, Hernandez, & Dacanay, 2002).” It becomes somewhat like an “electronic umbilical cord” that extends the reach of the “ties that bind” so to speak. If not too long ago it was the telephone, today it is the Internet that brings the overseas Filipino home. Or makes the Filipino at home in the world. Facebook and kinship Not so long ago, it was the radio and telephone that served our immediate communications needs. Now, Facebook has become the relevant technology that comes closely at par with SMS. Facebook has become a shared cultural trait. And, as we have said, its utility resonates with so many people from diverse cultures all over the globe. We see in the Facebook phenomenon, how an existing cultural pattern – the kinship needs or the cultural values – of Filipinos shaping the usage of technologies. This is very much different from the techno-deterministic formulation that “technology drives the development of society's social structure and cultural values.” We are witnessing in the Facebook explosion how a technology – which is also a product of culture – becomes appropriated according to the cultural need of a particular context. Because of the cultural need, which in our case is the need to keep in touch, to maintain “latent ties”, the technology has been created to make this possible. This is what developers did when they created the technology of Facebook. The sense of kinship among Filipinos, might also be cited as one reason why the issue on privacy and security that has become a bone of contention among Westerners for example, is not really a big matter with Filipino Facebook users. We Filipinos gladly open up our lives to the world in Facebook just like we open up to strangers we meet on the bus. Is it because we love being watched? A Japanese academic wrote something about gladly offering information in social network sites (at least in the Japanese context): we do it not because “we are being deceived or compelled, but because we have comfort in that very aspect of the media.” In this sense contemporary surveillance as realized in SNS “appears brighter and more fun” and loses the gloomy, repressive image and instead becomes seductive (Abe, 2009).” The kinship "peculiarity" just might also explain why Filipinos love to use Facebook the way radio resonates with people in rural areas. Barrio folks going to the city would make it a point to visit the popular AM radio station, which usually have a regular public service program, and then do a panawagan on air. It usually goes: "we have arrived safely so tell mama and papa not to worry", "somebody is hospitalized and we need money quick", "we will be late in returning home so please take care of the carabao." From the mundane to the essential, people bare the details of their lives to the public. Despite the trappings of globalization and cosmopolitanism, the Pinoy is still the agrarian probinsyano at heart. Facebook just extended the rural village into a global one. References: Abe, K. (2009). The Myth of Media Interactivity : Technology, Communications and Surveillance in Japan. Theory Culture Society 2009, 26(7 ), 73-89. DOI: 10.1177/0263276409103119 Boyd, D. & Ellison, N. (2007). Social network sites: Definition, history, and scholarship. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 13(1), article 11. Retrieved from http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol13/issue1/boyd.ellison.html Dimacali, T. (2010, August 18).Philippines still text messaging capital - US study. GMANEWS.tv. Retrieved September 23, 2010 from http://www.gmanews.tv/story/198832/philippines-still-text-messaging-champ-us-study Doyo, C. (2008, June 8). Family, not money, make Filipinos happy. Philippine Daily Inquirer. Retrieved September 23, 2010 from http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/inquirerheadlines/nation/view/20080608-141382/Family-not-money-make-Filipinos-happy Overseas Filipino. (2010). In Wikipedia. Retrieved September 23, 2010 from http://search.eb.comhttp:en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overseas_Filipino The Social Acceptance Project (2003). What Do Filipinos Value Most in Life? Sketches//,1(1). Retrieved from http://pdf.usaid.gov/pdf_docs/PNACX424.pdf Ugarte, R., Pingol, A., Hernandez, J., & Dacanay, N. (2002). Chapter 2: History of Mass Media in the Philippines. In Txt-Ing Selves: Cellphones and Philippine Modernity. De La Salle University Press.
Multiply. MySpace. Friendster. Facebook. These are just some of the more familiar social network sites on the web that have attracted millions of users, Filipinos included. For the purposes of this paper, we focus on Facebook, currently the hands down leader in social network services (SNS) with over 500 million users worldwide, 16 million of which are Filipinos (http://www.checkfacebook.com).
We will look into the reasons why Facebook is so popular among Filipinos. We will try to interpret the implications of the Facebook phenomenon by proposing some observations which shall be guided by existing scholarship. Before we delve deeper into Facebook we will provide a brief definition of key terms as proposed by scholars studying the SNS phenomenon.
Defining Social Network Sites
Danah Boyd and Nicole Ellison (2007) define social network sites as “web-based services that allow individuals to (1) construct a public or semi-public profile within a bounded system, (2) articulate a list of other users with whom they share a connection, and (3) view and traverse their list of connections and those made by others within the system.” Social network services all over the web share similar key features, though each may vary in the way “new information and communication tools, such as mobile connectivity, blogging, and photo/video-sharing” are incorporated into their offerings. Some sites cater to a diverse audience and a wide range of interest while others attract users “based on common language or shared racial, sexual, religious or nationality-based identities” (Boyd & Ellison, 2007).
Although the terms "social network site" and “social networking site” both mean the same web services and are often used interchangeably, Boyd and Ellison (2007) prefer to use the term “network” over “networking” for two reasons: emphasis and scope. “Networking" emphasizes relationship initiation, often between strangers. Boyd and Ellison (2007) observe that many SNS users are not necessarily “networking” or looking to meet new people although this is possible on these sites; instead, they are primarily communicating with people who are already a part of their extended social network.
The unique feature of SNS that differentiate it from other forms of computer-mediated communication is not that they allow individuals to meet strangers but rather they enable users to “articulate and make visible their social networks.” Networking is not the primary practice on many of the SNS , rather it is meeting between “latent ties” who share some offline connection (Boyd & Ellison, 2007).
Technology and culture: the angle on kinship
Kinship as a cultural function or trait can explain why Filipinos are so fond of kamustahan, balitaan, tsismisan. We strike up conversations with complete strangers and, the first thing we ask – where are you from? -- even before we ask their names. The exchange usually progresses to asking about so and so from that particular place. It seems Filipinos know somebody from everywhere and we always seek some degree of affinity with the people we interact with.
The Filipinos' sense of kinship with its extended familial ties explains something about why social network sites like Facebook find resonance in our contemporary cultural consciousness. We have this inherent need or – lust – for communication, a need to maintain and expand our family network; to keep in touch with relatives, friends and friends of friends. For the Filipino, friends are actually the extension of the family.
“The family is what matters most to Filipinos, according to the Social Acceptance Project (2003) “everything else that they consider important is anchored on the family.” A blog by Jim Brown (www.articlesnatch.com), succinctly describes how Filipinos value family:
“In the Philippines, the family's importance is clearly on the top of all the priorities. Filipinos connection with family is arguably incomparable to any other race or nationality. Filipinos will do just about anything for their families. The Filipinos who leave the country and work overseas, they do that just for their family. They endure all the hardships in a foreign land just to send money at home. Such is the love for family by Filipinos that you would almost see the majority of families living in just one place. Filipinos value family more than anything in this world.”
This observation is affirmed by a study titled Filipino Concept of Subjective Well-Being and its Correlates. The survey done in 2008 sought to find out what makes the Filipino happy. The study revealed that although money can help, it is not at the top of the list. “Filipinos still point to the non-material as the enduring cause of their joy and well-being (Doyo, 2008).” The most prominent theme that stood out was the familial theme, Filipinos believe that “happiness comes, first and foremost, from having a happy, harmonious and healthy family.” Next to the family as a source of happiness is being with friends; “our interest in good interpersonal relationships goes beyond the family group (Doyo, 2008).”
It is not so hard to see how communication figures into the Filipinos' sense of kinship. Communication and the technologies that enable it serve as the link that holds it all together. We can conclude then how communication technologies assume much importance in the Filipino's concept of well-being. This should also explain why despite poverty for example, the Filipino would endure hunger, forego a kilo of rice and opt to buy cellphone load.
The diaspora of Filipinos around the world due to economic reasons is somehow related to the growth in demand for communication technologies. The latest survey shows that two major groups using the Internet are the youth and overseas Filipino workers. Between the two, it is the OFW sector that clearly has economic significance being the only sector that has kept the Philippine economy afloat. It is safe to project that as the export of human resources increases rapidly, internet penetration and SNS usage will also surge.
SMS, the internet
A research studying messaging trends found that SMS (short messaging service) is still the medium of choice for Filipinos. In fact, Filipinos are still the world champions of texting beating the Americans by a wide margin. The reason given was that cellphones and SMS plans are a lot cheaper than computers and broadband connections. (Dimacali, 2010). However, this trend reflects more of the local communication traffic rather than the outbound-inbound traffic since international text exchanges are still quite expensive.
As more Filipinos go abroad to work, the demand for inexpensive modes of communication also rises. Social network sites afford our OFW families the cheapest way to keep in touch and this is shown in the Internet usage statistics. OFWs are believed to number around 8.5 to 11 million, not counting the estimated 3 million undocumented Filipinos working illegally abroad. All in all, OFWs comprise about 10-11% of the total Philippine population. If we extrapolate the numbers, it would mean one in every ten Filipino family has a relative or a member working abroad.
What we might call as the “globalization of the Pinoy” has not diminished the distinctly Filipino sense of kinship. Filipinos nurture ties with family members halfway around the globe and use the technology as they become available and accessible to keep the ties intact despite the distance. The Internet, and now the social networking sites have become the latest addition to technologies that extend these kinship ties.
Viewed from the angle on kinship patterns, what make these new communications technology appealing to the Filipino is its synchronicity and interactivity. Being synchronous and instant, it has the effect of “collapsing the distance between the workplace and the home (Ugarte, Pingol, Hernandez, & Dacanay, 2002).” It becomes somewhat like an “electronic umbilical cord” that extends the reach of the “ties that bind” so to speak. If not too long ago it was the telephone, today it is the Internet that brings the overseas Filipino home. Or makes the Filipino at home in the world.
Facebook and kinship
Not so long ago, it was the radio and telephone that served our immediate communications needs. Now, Facebook has become the relevant technology that comes closely at par with SMS. Facebook has become a shared cultural trait. And, as we have said, its utility resonates with so many people from diverse cultures all over the globe.
We see in the Facebook phenomenon, how an existing cultural pattern – the kinship needs or the cultural values – of Filipinos shaping the usage of technologies.
This is very much different from the techno-deterministic formulation that “technology drives the development of society's social structure and cultural values.” We are witnessing in the Facebook explosion how a technology – which is also a product of culture – becomes appropriated according to the cultural need of a particular context. Because of the cultural need, which in our case is the need to keep in touch, to maintain “latent ties”, the technology has been created to make this possible. This is what developers did when they created the technology of Facebook.
The sense of kinship among Filipinos, might also be cited as one reason why the issue on privacy and security that has become a bone of contention among Westerners for example, is not really a big matter with Filipino Facebook users. We Filipinos gladly open up our lives to the world in Facebook just like we open up to strangers we meet on the bus. Is it because we love being watched? A Japanese academic wrote something about gladly offering information in social network sites (at least in the Japanese context): we do it not because “we are being deceived or compelled, but because we have comfort in that very aspect of the media.” In this sense contemporary surveillance as realized in SNS “appears brighter and more fun” and loses the gloomy, repressive image and instead becomes seductive (Abe, 2009).”
The kinship "peculiarity" just might also explain why Filipinos love to use Facebook the way radio resonates with people in rural areas. Barrio folks going to the city would make it a point to visit the popular AM radio station, which usually have a regular public service program, and then do a panawagan on air. It usually goes: "we have arrived safely so tell mama and papa not to worry", "somebody is hospitalized and we need money quick", "we will be late in returning home so please take care of the carabao."
From the mundane to the essential, people bare the details of their lives to the public. Despite the trappings of globalization and cosmopolitanism, the Pinoy is still the agrarian probinsyano at heart. Facebook just extended the rural village into a global one.
References:
Abe, K. (2009). The Myth of Media Interactivity : Technology, Communications and Surveillance in Japan. Theory Culture Society 2009, 26(7 ), 73-89. DOI: 10.1177/0263276409103119
Boyd, D. & Ellison, N. (2007). Social network sites: Definition, history, and scholarship. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 13(1), article 11. Retrieved from http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol13/issue1/boyd.ellison.html
Dimacali, T. (2010, August 18).Philippines still text messaging capital - US study. GMANEWS.tv. Retrieved September 23, 2010 from http://www.gmanews.tv/story/198832/philippines-still-text-messaging-champ-us-study
Doyo, C. (2008, June 8). Family, not money, make Filipinos happy. Philippine Daily Inquirer. Retrieved September 23, 2010 from http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/inquirerheadlines/nation/view/20080608-141382/Family-not-money-make-Filipinos-happy
Overseas Filipino. (2010). In Wikipedia. Retrieved September 23, 2010 from http://search.eb.comhttp:en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overseas_Filipino
The Social Acceptance Project (2003). What Do Filipinos Value Most in Life? Sketches//,1(1). Retrieved from http://pdf.usaid.gov/pdf_docs/PNACX424.pdf
Ugarte, R., Pingol, A., Hernandez, J., & Dacanay, N. (2002). Chapter 2: History of Mass Media in the Philippines. In Txt-Ing Selves: Cellphones and Philippine Modernity. De La Salle University Press.