The UP-CMC study categorizes the Filipino Facebook users into six types:
THE (FACE)BOOKWORM. These are users who are always updated on the people on their Facebook network, incessantly checking and reading status updates.
PAIMPORTANTE. These are users with a constant stream of status updates on their lives, utilizing the site like an online diary or planner.
IKAW NA ANG BAD TRIP. These are users who use their status messages as a venue to vent and rage about their everyday life.
APPDATED. These are users who only log in to engage in Mafia Wars, harvest crops in Farmville, and serve customers on Café World.
NAG FACEBOOK KA PA. These are users who use the site only to connect with friends and do not utilize Facebook’s unique features like applications and chatting.
PAPANSIN. These are users who post status messages – whether positive or negative – directed at other people, without explicitly naming who these people are.
The study says these six types are not only reflective of the kinds of Filipino users Facebook has, but how these same Filipino users have “filipinized” Facebook and made it their own.
The (Face)bookworm, for instance, reflect positive and negative sides of the Filipinos: our spirit of bayanihan and our sense of rumor.
“Facebook has allowed Filipinos to post and repost cause-oriented messages during times of crisis and emergencies, such as during Ondoy and Pepeng,” explains Acacio. “But we also like to gossip; it is a national past time. We like to make tsismis anywhere and anytime, and with Facebook, we can even do it online.”
The fact that a majority of Filipino Facebook users value how the site allows them to connect with friends and family and maintain existing friendships also reflect the importance that our society places on close family ties.
Lim, Ronald S. (2010). FaceBUKING, Manila Bulletin Publishing Corporation. Retrieve on January 23, 2010 from http://mb.com.ph/articles/247978/facebuking
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