Virtual Ethnography 101: Election Memes and My Indelible Ink

I would always ask my college and graduate students in Anthropology, aside from learning anthropological concepts and theories inside the classroom, to explore places, experience cultural or social happenings, and write ethnographic accounts using the participation-observation method.
I am posting in my blog with the writer's consent selected ethnography penned creatively by my students to contribute to the emerging sub-discipline of anthropology called 'Virtual Ethnography'.

Basically, virtual ethnography is also referred to as Webnography. We cannot deny the fact that with increasing use of technology and the Internet, there is now a demand for online spaces on various ethnographic accounts.


By Cristina D Cruz

My mother and I woke up early to vote. She is registered in Makati and I, in Antipolo. Well, its 8am and the volume of people is already building up. It’s a usual election for me. Upon voting and inserting the sheet into the pcos machine and having that indelible ink mark in me, we immediately part our ways—she, headed to vote in Makati.

Well, as I’ve observed personally, in Antipolo, election is quiet and organized. Well, according to the news, NAMFREL stated that it is generally peaceful and organized. Yes it might be the case, but of course there are still some things that should be improved for next time. For instance, in Nueva Ecija, According to GMA news, this province is one of the places where there are most number of voters and yet in one of the schools there, election has already started and people have already lined up but the staff and the machine isn’t ready yet because the people who are supposed to be heading the election there don’t know how to operate the machine. This shows lack of professionalism. They could have studied it the night before—they should have done their assignment to prevent delay. Well, that is one of the things that caught my attention that morning in the news.

At night, since I didn’t get to watch the news, I just checked the unofficial results over the net and browsed facebook as I am expecting posts from different people about their election. People in social media are fond of taking their pictures and posting it in facebook or twitter and this election the most trending are pictures of fingers with indelible ink, pictures and statements about Nancy Binay, Dick Gordon and Miriam Santiago.

First, Nancy Binay. She is quite popular in social media because most people in my facebook newsfeed believes that she is not deserving to win, or even be a candidate for senator since she does not have the so-called “credentials”. In contrary to what they believe, Binay got the 5th position in the unofficial results of election and so, people posted stuffs targeting mostly her skin color. This is quite offensive but I’d like to think that this is just their way of expressing that they aren’t happy, so far, with the partial results. Well, some people’s way is to use Miriam Defensor Santiago to balance the equation.

And again, I’d like to think that this is just their way of showing that they are frustrated about the partial results and that at least, they have this one person to trust in the senate. And as of Gordon, it seems like he’s trending not just because people are making fun of his name but because people in facebook actually wants him to win.

Now, what’s actually the point why I am writing about all these social media observations? Well according to statistics, Philippines is one of the top ten most engaged countries for social networking and most of its users are ages 18-24 years old—young adults like me. My point is that, social media is actually helping young people to be more aware of the present issues—especially political issues. Opinions are expressed and exchanged and this alone is a good thing for the society. It is worth noting that we, young adults actually express our own opinions and stands regarding present issues.