Liquid Modernity

Nakipag-kuwentuhan ako sa sister ko sa Singapore kanina.  Sabi ko sa kanya na ang hirap palang mag-establish ng friendship kapag wala ka sa city o bansa mo.  Kasi nga people are very mobile nowadays.  Some get assigned to a certain location for a long time, others just for a few months, and then there are those for only a few days 

Sabi ng sister ko meron daw interesting book entitled "Liquid Modernity" si Zygmunt Baumann.  Sabi nga sa book mas nagiging mahirap ang mag-establish ng long-term physical friendships sa mga panahon ngayon.  Di ko pa nababasa ang book.  Wala pa nga akong copy.

Pero interesado na talaga ako. 

These days kasi, with the popularity of social networking sites, ang connection ng maraming tao ay virtual. People connect though their laptops, pcs, phones.  They share good news, happy moments more and more through networking sites.  And it seems people are contented.  I guess the younger generation are totally fine with this.  Marami sa kanila, di na nila alam kung ano ang buhay na walang Facebook.  They were born during the Social Networking era, where stories are shared online, where coolness of celebrations are measured by the number of likes, where popularity is indicated by the number of friends you have, regardless of whether you have actually met them or not.

Second aspect is probably related to population migration.  These days, everyone travels.  And many people leave home for work or business.  Others temporary but more and more are relocating for years.  So there is a big possibility that people get displaced aat certain period of time.  It is common to hear the directive, "if you want to get promoted, you have to relocate".  And there a lot of stories of people who stayed where they are who had been bypassed by promotion or simply deprived of better ratings or other privileges.

I am not sure if Liquid Modernity has manifested itself in the Philippines compared to other countries, say the US, or the region of Western Europe, where travel for work had been rampant for many decades.  But I could also imagine that this could already be starting in the Philippines.  Well, the 10Million OFWs are leaving the country not coming to the country.  So yes, Filipinos are very much impacted but the Philippines has probably just started.  You can get a sense when say you go to Glorietta or Greenbelt, and see families of expats.  Before, you see a Caucasian male or female, but nowadays you see their whole family.  I had the courage to ask them what they are doing in the Philippines and they said for work.  Several are for religion/church, like missionary work.  But many others are from IT or for expansion of multinational companies in Asia.

I wonder how they do in the Philippines, considering we are very friendly.  To the point that sometimes we cross personal boundaries to be hospitable.