Blogs are out; videos (on YouTube) are in - that's what the girl who got me started blogging in 2003 told me yesterday when I asked her why she had not updated her blog in months.
She may be right, but it makes blogging all the more significant for me. I blog because there are people who prefer to read and slowly make sense of the information they're receiving rather than watch videos, which may concededly be more humorous and even entertaining, but which also cater to the everything-should-be-instant mentality of our generation. Plus, I like to write, and Blogspot is my chosen medium.
I am not alarmed even if I cannot switch over to the more favored form of artistic expression. For years newspapers have survived even if "Video Killed the Radio Star", as the first music video said about TV's effect on the rule of the airwaves showed. Some people have grown accustomed to getting their hands blackened by the ink from their morning papers and prefer to receive their news that way, especially since here in the Philippines, television newscasts offer sensational journalism and even outright capitalism, highlighting the littlest crimes and promoting their respective networks' shows and stars as if they were legitimately newsworthy. These are the reasons why I still read the papers day after day. As an aside, I remember the character "M" in GoldenEye, who was asked by James Bond if the pictures he was seeing were live, and replied, "Unlike the Americans, we prefer not to get our bad news from CNN." Me neither.
If it were true that there are less active bloggers now, it makes people like me who like to be read so much happier. I would compare this to the "lechon manok" (grilled chicken) phenomenon in Manila. Many years ago, lechon manok was so much the fad that stalls were put up at almost every corner of the metropolis and surrounding provinces. It was insane. People must have eaten lechon manok at least twice a day in order to consume all the birds that were grilled at that time. Since a family could only eat so much chicken without sprouting feathers and wings, the demand naturally decreased and one by one the entrepreneurs had to close shop. The giants of the business survived, however. Only two big names in lechon manok stayed to rule the market - Andok's Litson Manok and Baliwag Lechon.
Since Filipinos have always liked to join in the bandwagon, this phenomenon was repeated for shawarma, which according to Wikipedia is "a Middle Eastern-style sandwich usually composed of shaved lamb, chicken, turkey, or beef." After that we got addicted to pearl shakes and everyone, even actors, invested in them and got franchises of different brands from across Asia. Now, shawarma and pearl shakes are still around but only the best-tasting ones have remained.
My Economics professors would probably have a more technical explanation to all these, but going back to blogging, I would like to be known as the "Baliwag or Andok's Lechon Manok of Blogging". Even if other bloggers have come and gone, I would like to stay and write my pieces for those who like to read.
I must admit that I am plain stupid when it comes to shooting videos. My editing skills are even worse, they are non-existent! Yes this really is the reason why I can't entertain you on YouTube. I'd like to stick to what's familiar. I know some people, like my sister-in-law Peeya and my friend Karreen, who discovered latent skills in this medium, but not me.
I plan to write blogs for a very long time.
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