I was browsing my Facebook account when I burst into laughter. Why? Simply because I saw my old photos during the year 2010 edited with so much elaboration and color. In addition to that, comments and posts made by my friends entertained me.
Jejemons became very viral during the year 2010. I remembered, it was given much attention than the ongoing election that year. It has influenced many people over a small period of time. From kids, teenagers and even to adults. Jejemon originated from the words "Jeje" which came from "Hehe" typically used to portray slight laughter and "Mons" (monster) from the animated series Pokemon (or Pocket Monsters).
But who/what are these Jejemons? Are they vampires like Edward Cullen? Werewolves like Jacob Black? NO. They are just ordinary people but has an "extraordinary skill" in writing. Urban Dictionary defines them as:
- a person WhO tyPeZ lYKeS tH1s pfOuh.. whether you are RICH, MIDDLE CLASS or POOR ifpK eU tYpE L1K3 tHiS pfOuh..eU are CONSIDERED AS JEJEMON.
- (noun or adj.)---a person who is very expert in typing..
- a person that nevr gets tired of typing consonants in all of his comments...
- people with very LOW IQ
- a person that destroys the morale of language in any typing media like internet,cellphones...etc...
- a person you want to fuck off and kill
- an emo/gangster who owns all the possible negative qualities of a person.
- is the derrogative term used for a certain categorized kind of people.They type JEJEJE or JEJEJE when they want to express laughing in written words, which happen more than often. This is why we call them jejes.
In addition to that, the blogpost "What it takes to be a JEJEMON" written by akosiniko, mentioned that one can be determined as a Jejemon through three signs: Jejetyping, wearing of jejehat and posting jejephotos.
First, "Jeje typing" which basically includes sticky caps, numbers and symbols instead of letters and too much punctuation marks. Words written on this manner are apparently seen on social networking sites such as Friendster, Multiply and Facebook and even in online games.
One episode of Kapuso Mo, Jessica Soho (please click the video starting from 2:49-3:40) which aired May 1st of the year 2010 talked about the Jejemons.
This includes the four types of Jeje typing:
a. Mild – eow pU..MxTa pu? jejeje
(Where one can still understand what is the message)
b. Moderate – eOw pFow,, Na M1Sz pfOu qTah! mWahXz!
(Unnecessary letter and punctuation begins to appear)
c. Severe – 3ow pfU!,…aN3u pfOW gW4 n3O? tX tX nUa lHarN
(Numbers start to replace letters)
d. Terminal – “3Ow pf0U m3N4 p!p0L! nUa M1Xz k0 pF0u K30 nU4n z0bR4 wUaCk k30nG M3k A4Ng4Sz sXa b0SzX nu4 tuLad kW0
(Words can no longer be deciphered)
Second sign is wearing the so-called "Jeje hat". It is a common snap back cap designed with rainbow vertical stripes at the back but what made it "special" is that it is not worn rather, it is placed on ones head in an inclined position. (The caption says it all.)
Lastly, is when people start to sneer and swarm around your "jeje photos" over the net. "Jeje photos" includes the "jeje edits" and the "jeje pose". Jeje edits are those edited images which are pregnant so much design such as stickers and jeje texts, beautified with over contrasting colors, blurring and other stuffs edited from photo enhancing sites such as Imikimi, Picnik, PicMonkey, Blingee and Pizap. The inverted peace signs, gangster hand gestures, posing with a Starbucks coffee, zoomed-in photo of one's face, pose with an over sized sunglasses, "emo" pose where one takes a photo of him/her without looking at the camera and of course the undying fansigns are few of those "jeje pose".
These Jejemons are considered the modern-aged Jologs based on the article Jejemons: The new ‘jologs’ written by Harvey Marcoleta in Inquirer Lifestyle Beta. The article focused on three points. First, Jejemons do not exist only in the Philippines but also to the other parts of Asia. One example he gave was the Thais using "5555" in depicting laughter since 5 is read as Ha in Thai. Second and third, is about how the tolerance of "Jejemonism" can affect the literacy and in intellectualizing language in our country. In some points, the second and third contradict because the second states that in intellectualizing the Filipino language one must use it. Because of the Jejemons' existence, rationalizing our language became hard. The over-usage of letters which cause the words to be misspelled is one reason. On the other hand, the third perhaps suggest that the use of Jejemon words can help in the process but of course an intellectualized language requires formalization of words. The main point of his article is that we all have our freedom of speech. We can say anything we want in any way we want, whether I type like this or 3venH laYke tHizXs.,
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| Jejemaster: Aris Bonifacio |
Another article, Jejemon: The Culture and Angst of Today's Youth, written by Ireno Alcala from the site HubPages supported the latter. His article included Aris Bonifacio, the so-called Jeje master. Aris claimed that they are modern Jologs who wants to be different from typical teenagers.
While reading the articles, I was asking myself what is the relation of "Jologs" and "Jejemon"? The article by Antoinette Jadaone entitled The ultimate 'jologs' quiz of 2012 in The Philippine Star's Lifestyle section answered my question. I found the connection between the two, being mainstream. Supporting the connection I found, a forum from the site pinoyexchange.com gave me some insights about being a Jolog. It came from the words dilis, tuyo and itlog which most Filipinos can afford. It is technically used to name someone who belongs to the lower class.
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| Jolog TV show |
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| Epitome of Jologs |
In addition to that, one is considered a Jolog if he/she follows the trend such as the Jolina Magdangal fever, a genius when it comes to afternoon and evening drama television shows, knows about the up-to-date showbiz news and those people who insists the April Boy Regino at Mystica music. It is also a word to depict the Filipino term "baduy" or someone who doesn't have a good fashion sense at all. It's either he/she wears too much colorful clothes or wears something too much conservative clothes.
Reflecting to the articles I've read, I was dumbfounded to learn I was one of those Jologs. I've always been a fan of the afternoon drama series, Daisy Siete. In fact, back then, I was able to watch the series every afternoon by sneaking out and disobeying my mom's rule to sleep during afternoon. Another thing is that I realized I was a Jejemon back then, typing words in a very delicate way. But I was one of those mild ones because you would still be able to understand the words I'm referring to.
To wrap everything up, Jologs and Jejemons have so much similarities. First, it is for the mass. For those ordinary people who loves to follow the trend. Second, the fashion. Both has a distinct fashion sense with makes it unique and can easily be pointed out. Third, the music. Both has its own music genre, "emo" or sentimental songs for the Jologs while this rap Taglish songs with robotic-like voices for the Jejemons . Last but not the least, people belonging to these groups are the subject of discrimination. People kept on pointing fingers but have they ever evaluated themselves? No. We are all Jologs and Jejemon in our simple way. Becoming a fan of a mainstream group/band makes one a Jolog and replying a simple "Wer u?" makes you a Jejemon. Just two tips, first it's just a matter on how one deals with the situation and second, it takes one to know one.
Dats ol, tnx! :D
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