i Report Issue No. 3 2005 - Philippine Center for Investigative ...

T H E L O S T G E N E R A T I O N
and in school at an early
age. Jeric, Margo, and July
were sixth graders when they
first experienced surfing the
Internet to do research for
their homework, as well as
acquiring their first cellphones.
Jeric and Margo derived so
much satisfaction just from
getting cheat codes for the PC
games they were playing then
until they discovered IRC.
They were introduced to
chatting only in their third or
fourth year in high school,
SO YOUNG AND SO HI-TECH.
These teenagers have only
met each other twice, but
their gadgets ensure they
remain the best of friends.
with July confessing to
developing an addiction to it
just last year. In a week, he’d
be online for 50 hours, costing
him P200 in prepaid Internet
cards. There came a point,
though, when he got bored of
chatting. But then he met his
new gang.
Lei, the only one in the
group without any connections
to St. Joseph’s, also started
chatting last year, initially with
the chat rooms in Yahoo!.
Then she found her way to
IRC and stumbled upon Roch
in #makata.
“I met Roch when we took
turns composing lines for a
poem in #makata,” recounts
Lei, a psychology sophomore
at Polytechnic University of the
Philippines. “Then, someone
using the nick (alias) ‘anak
ko’ entered the chat room.
That prodded me to ask Roch
to become my virtual mom
and adopt me. She took me
to #rochy and that’s where I
eventually met the others.”
Roch and July’s friendship
started out through an even
more peculiar encounter.
Narrates Roch: “I came to
know July when I commented
in the main channel how ugly
the current issue of Josephian
was. I was expressing concern
because I also wrote for the
paper before.”
July replied to Roch in
private, agreeing with her
comment but without telling
her that he was the paper’s
editor. “She eventually learned
who I was,” he says. “After
that, we arranged a meeting
at the school patio. We have
become close since then.”
OUTSIDE OF the church
confessional, baring one’s soul
in a faceless encounter may
seem unimaginable to many
grown-ups. Today’s youths,
however, are at ease with
such a situation, and take
advantage of the “always on”
peer interaction allowed by
the technology. As Roch puts
it, “It’s easier to open up when
there’s no eye-to-eye contact.
When the exchange becomes
very personal, you can cry to
your heart’s content without
the other person seeing you.
That way, you don’t embarrass
yourself.”
The others agree. “As far
as I’m concerned,” says July,
“I hate to approach somebody
and cry on that person’s
shoulder. It’s fine with me
to just have someone there
listening to me, even if it’s not
personal, only technological.”
Yet hearing him and the
rest of the rochy barkada
attest how they have known
each other more intimately,
becoming closer than siblings
from their online interactions,
gives me the impression that
there is more to the social
networking than just the
technology. Of course, ICTs
are helping them a lot to keep
in constant touch with their
intimate community. But these
young people are also seeking
out those in whom they find
a genuine interest, individuals
with whom they have
something in common, people
who are much like them.
In this regard, they are no
different from us who made
friends in a pre-networked
world. Only that in forging
their cyberfriendships, they
don’t check out someone’s
physical attributes first, though
they may send each other
scanned images of themselves
later or post avatars on their
instant messengers and blogs.
So who are we to argue
that our generation nurtured far
more meaningful and dynamic
relationships only because ours
did not need the intervention
of machines? Of course, some
may argue that relationships,
whether of the filial, fraternal,
or romantic kind, require the
personal, face-to-face, human
touch for them to endure the
test of time. But even without
this, relationships may thrive
if there is one remaining
constant: communication in
whatever form and manner
that generations may choose.
That is why I can’t say I still
have a relationship with
my friends in high school.
We haven’t been in touch
for a long time, despite the
emergence of the cellphone,
the Net, the virtual chat rooms.
The communication lines have
been broken. The technology is
there, but we have simply not
used it.
All these have led me
musing over how technology
would figure in my two
young daughters’ future
relationships. My eight-yearold
and three-year-old will
be teenagers sooner than I
expect and will be exposed
to a digital culture even more
different from what we have
now. Roch herself says that
while relationships of all sorts
are still possible offline, “it’s
hard to communicate and
maintain them without the use
of new technologies because
they are a major part of our
generation.” If that’s the way it
is today, my daughters could
be looking at relationships
that are highly wired—and
wireless—and “forever on.”
Well, so long as they don’t
get too tied up as to greet their
parents “good morning” in a
chat room.
58 PHILIPPINE CENTER FOR INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM I REPORT