Holiday novelty

A GOOD thing happened on social media networks on the days of Christmas. These online places turned cheerful and stress-free, for the most part.

Rather than reading hate speech among political advocates or about killings that continued despite the holiday season, Facebook users turned to this social media platform to share photos of Christmas gatherings of their families. They posted photos or video of their reunions and of them dressed up for midnight mass and parties.

The capability to do live video reports on Facebook also became a venue for users to reach out in real-time or record their wishes and greetings to family and friends. This was an innovation from past Christmases in the age of social media. It was only this year when live reporting on Facebook Live or Twitter’s Periscope grew in usage.

Facebook is the most popular social media platform today in the Philippines and in other countries such as the United States.

A Pew Research report on striking findings from 2016 said, eight-in-ten online Americans (79 percent) use Facebook, more than double the share that uses Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram or LinkedIn. It said on http:// www.pewresearch.org that about three-quarters (76 percent) of Americans who use Facebook now report that they visit the site on a daily basis – up from 70 percent in 2015. In the Philippines, Facebook remains the number one social network of use with 54 million as active users based on a http:/ / wearesocial.com report. This number as of September this year represents a 29 percent increase from March 2015. Most of the Facebook users are millennials, those belonging to the 18 to 24-year-old group, followed by those aged 25 to 34.

Before Christmas, they posted records of the dawn masses they attended. Those who completed all nine days of the dawn masses or the Misa de Aguinaldo proudly proclaimed their achievements.

But the social media isn’t perfect. It could be unthinking and its mistakes, embarrassing. On the dawn mass reporting done by the Sun.Star website on www.sunstar.com.ph from the Birhen sa Regla in Lapu-Lapu city, some Facebook users said they were horror-struck to read the translation of the church’s name into “Virgin of Menstruation.” This was a literal translation of the name.

It turned out that Facebook users whose device settings allowed automatic translation saw the literal renaming and were shocked. To correct their discomfort and prevent more embarrassment, the website translated the name to “Virgin of the Rule.” No more getting waylaid in translation.

Such is a peril of this holiday novelty.

— Nini B. Cabaero