The power of posting and reposting.

I have been busy working on with the tasks that piled up at work after being away for almost a week for the Southeast Asia Blogger’s Conference in Bali, Indonesia. Aside from work, I’m still worried about how my dad reacts on his current condition. There were so many things that happened that makes me want to blog 5 times a day. Haha. In the Philippines, Social Media has played an indispensable role in the past election and some disasters like the typhoon Ondoy. Lately, the trend in Philippine’s Social Media inspired me, it was not just about the former President Gloria Arroyo being arrested but also, when a Facebook user (Jeddie JS) has helped an old couple find each other amidst the crowded city through posting and sharing a photo in Facebook.

The story of Lola Aurelia & Lolo Luis was in Facebook and Twitter the whole week and I was surprised to see in the local news today that Jeddie and Lola Aurelia finally met each other to greet and thank each other.

According to reports, Jeddie saw Lola Aurelia in Roxas Boulevard sitting and wearing a daster pinned with flyers at front and back, of the husband that she was looking for in weeks. The good-hearted Jeddie was touched how Lola Aurelia patiently gives out the flyers to every person who passes by, hoping that someone will lead her back to her husband, Lolo Luis Matias. The photo that Jeddie took and shared was reposted more than 60,000 times in Facebook that lead to the attention of a GMA News Team that later on helped Lola Aurelia in her hunt for his one and only love.

I’ve seen in my Facebook News Feed and Twitter Timeline touching posts of friends about the moment of reunion of the couple and I was intrigued on how it went. Here’s the video of the touching reunion:

I was touched with Lola Aurelia’s interview when she mentioned of how worried and sad she is whenever she eats because she thinks about if her husband has something to eat or if he has a place to stay. It reminded me of my dad saying that he needs to go home in our province even if he’s sick because my mom is alone. Being a hopeless romantic as I am, this incident taught me 3 important things:

1. That true love exists. Fighting for your love (and his welfare) is never a waste of time.
2. That a good heart can make this world a better place to live in and our good intentions can help others through our own simple ways.
3. That New Media or Social Media is truly playing a vital role in today’s generation so we all need to be responsible in everything that we share in the internet.

According to some articles of John Russel of asiancorrespondent.com, Japan is the model for mobile social networking, Hi-5 is the most popular social mobile networking in Thailand, Jakarta has the largest Facebook population of any city in the world with 17.5 million users, while Philippines has the highest proportion of users per population naming it the Social Networking Capital of the world in his article in May 2011. You can also refer to Tonyo Cruz’ post on the Nielsen’s first report on Southeast Asia’s Digital Consumer Report.

As I switch from one channel to another, I’ve seen so many news about a person’s ruined reputation through blogs and social networks that remind me that whatever we post can make or break a person or organization. It can also make some people furious and annoyed. I like what Dian Paramita, an Indonesian friend and blogger that I met in Bali, have said in her post that talks about how people should not react or comment on things that they don’t fully understand. (Haha. I don’t understand why there are some funny people who just talks without understanding the whole picture, generalize and force others to believe in what he/she believes in.)

Anyone is free to write and express their thoughts in the internet anytime and anywhere about anything. But I really hope that everyone should always think that there’s a consequence in our every action and every post. Remember, internet is not limited to your network, it is global and has the power to make this world a better place.


As what Maria Ressa said in her interview with Philippine Star, “As social media becomes bigger and bigger in our country, it has the power to spread the following: Terrorism. Fear. But also hope.If corruption spreads through social media, we can also counter it. If we spread that within our networks, and share the action they can take for it, then we begin to change reality.”