QUEZON City, Philippines (January 15) – Election plus the web? There are many possibilities. Written articles, pictures, promotions, name it and do them all. But, one thing that stands out is the use of memes. Be it plain or sarcastically funny, memes give us the realization that many of our netizens are brilliant and humorous.
Remember the 2015 State of the Nation Address? Memes poured all over Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. With their own witty captions, many uploaded photos of the long queues of people in MRT, a unicorn who, according to them, is more believable than the SONA speech, and how the event equalized Paris Fashion Week. What more now that the election period has started?
Apparently, the Anti-Cybercrime Group of Philippine National Police warned all netizens, especially the “paid”, to refrain uploading memes against politicians, especially those who’ll run for national office. Once caught, they’ll be charged with online libel. I wonder how they will do it and filter them, since Philippines is one of the leading social media capital in the world.
Facing the fact, mean memes do exist. With only one look, one can already notice if the meme is offensive and defamatory.Not all of them were aimed to make us laugh, and those are the ones that need some muscling. Making them is as easy as 1, 2 and 3; they’re inexpensive, trendy, and has the characteristic to spread like fire. Posting an authority to filter them is worth a try.
Inside the web community, I’m just an observer. What I see is that it is similar to true life, it has ups and downs. We are free, of course, but not entirely. Boundaries were made for our own good, and abiding them shows how our common sense work.
Internet memes do contain a lot of power, and as beholders, we hold responsibility to it. What we post reflects who we are inside, and being good still has its perks, despite of the judgmental world we live in. As for the politicians, they’re also humans. We may not know their true colors, but respect is for everyone. Respect and empathy; these are what we need to deepen our understanding not only to others, but moreover, in ourselves.
(written by Rex Felix C. Salvador I, edited by Jay Paul Carlos, additional research by Lovely Ann Cruz)
