Dahil oo, sans the number of followers, may sari-sarili din naman tayong palabas. Nag-a-upload din tayo ng (crude) video, ng mga unedited na larawan, memes; nakapagsusulat tayo nang mahaba-haba nang walang restriction sa paglalathala sa sarili nating social media accounts. Pwede rin tayong mag-interbyu ng kahit sinong papayag magpa-interbyu sa atin. Pwede tayong mag-promote ng mga tao at serbisyo. Pwede nating hugasan ang pagkatao o magkula ng budhi para pumuti ang salbahe’t magnanakaw, at i-frame na para bang you give chance to others to be heard. As if naman walang makinarya ang iinterbyuhin natin not just to be heard but to distort the past. Ganoon lang. Pero dahil hindi ka naman showbiz personality na may milyong followers, to quote my favorite chatmate, “Nganga ka na lang.”

Well, it all boils down to numbers kasi. Number of followers that this showbiz personality accumulated over time through scripted kilig scenes and more scripted interviews.

You see, the number of followers in social media matters in these trying times. Having hundreds of thousands of followers can land you to become a major vlogger na may sariling palabas with access to every major political carnival event in this land. And having millions? Well, it can make you a six-digit Philippine peso-earning mid-level government executive with an “Asec.” before your name. Pwede ka pang maging congressbeing through backdoor partylist representation na usong-uso ngayon.

Forget career-executive eligibility examinations. Having millions of followers on Twitter and Facebook will give you political legitimacy even if they are of the troll or fake account kind. This also gave rise to the social media nomenclature “organic following,” meaning the genuine, not paid, not fake, account type.

Iyon naman ang maipagmamalaki mo kahit papaano. Wala ka mang daan-daang libong followers, at least, the virtual friends you keep tend be organic. Totoo. Kakilala mo ang karamihan. Not some random copy+paste emotionless account. Hindi ka nga lang magva-viral ni pag-uusapan ang video o palabas mo. Pero pwede ka pa ring gumawa ng palabas at umasang mapapanood ng marami by way of organic sharing hanggang mag-viral. Kung talaga namang maganda at maayos ang content. Na pwede naman talagang mangyari pero pambihira.

Really now, do numbers in social media matter? In a world where leaders are usually elected, and quality is often neglected in the holy name of populist democracy, sadly, yes. Pero walang correlation ang dami ng followers sa galing o talino ng personalidad na fina-follow. O kung ang dami ng followers ay pupwedeng magpanalo sa iyo ng congressional backdoor seat. Hindi pa. Walang ganoong noong huling eleksyon. Pero malay natin.

What we also need to understand is that these numbers don’t necessarily translate to the efficacy in representing these collective followers, say, in the number of likes that is represented by that silly blue thumbs-up sign sa pinakapopular na social media account. Hindi ako nire-represent ng personality na fina-follow ko. Well, may iba akong kakilala na sinusukat ang tao depende sa pina-follow nila. Pwede rin naman. Malaya ka naman. Pero tandaan din nating hindi porke maraming nag-like ay like na talaga ang post na iyon. Tandaan nating na-weaponize na ang mass reax, halimbawa sa YouTube, kung saan maaaring ipadumog sa followers ang isang video at mag-dislike. Pero, ‘di ba, dahil nga inorganic kaya hindi ito magre-reflect bilang totoong reaksyon ng sambayanan.

The “like” icon, as with other emoticons and reax, as what you may already know, morphed into something else. It could be something you might want to express, a pretext to not having any other means to say that a post is unpleasant, like in a “one like, one prayer” like-a-thon to some click-bait post. Kaya minsan dahil sa kaunting reax na pamimilian, magha-haha ka na lang. Ilan na ang nakita kong magkakaaway sa FB group kung saan ako kabilang dahil lang sa haha reax sa isang seemingly seryosong status. “May nakakatawa ba?” Itatanong ng nag-post. Haha reax uli. “Ano problema mo?” Haha reax. Hanggang sa mag-away na.

Totoo din namang may enterprising organizers who catapulted through the like-and-share barrage when promoting a product or an event. Or as the case of this personality, laos na kandidato. Ginagamit na rin ang paramihan ng heart reax in voting the most liked contestant on a virtual beaucon. At totoo pa rin namang may mga students that rely on number of likes to obtain high grades given by some soulless clueless pedagogue. Oo, meron pa rin akong nakikitang ganito, mga proyektong idinadaan sa paramihan ng reax at shares. 

The number of likes and shares gave a whole new meaning to the word virality. As in having viral element that spreads throughout the synthetic social media and new media world. As in gustong maging viral ang kaniyang palabas kaya siya nagpakakontrobersyal. Sa dami ng nanonood o nagsu-subcribe lalapit ang mga advertisers. Kaching! Kung hindi man ang mismong guest ang iyong sponsor. Kaching!

The vagueness of “like” and other reax icons poorly substitute for a more reasonable discourse on the comment space. Nakakatamad din kasi naman mag-comment minsan lalo’t binabaha ng trolls ang thread. Kaya mag-react ka na lang. O kaya, hit the subscribe o follow button. 

To follow someone on social media is a misnomer. “To follow” is a phrase construed by the privileged few as a sign to have loyal subjects and, worse, blind followers. Kasi naman, follow ang mas popular na termino. Followed by <insert number> people. Ang lakas maka-relevant. Pero as if naman, sa Tagalog ng follow, susundan ka. Kaya nakakalaki ng ulo ang maraming followers na ang totoo, subscribers lang naman talaga.

You may be followed by a few or, as in the case of this major vlogger, by hundreds of thousands of social media accounts (I won’t use the term people nor netizen because an account doesn’t always necessarily translate to one individual, hello multiple account holders and troll farms) but you cannnot, and should not, consider these followings as something of the unthinking yes-people. Otherwise, since mayroon akong mahigit na treinta mil na followers sa FB, kung talagang magfa-follow o susunod sila sa akin, magpapadala ako ng sampung piso bawat isa sa aking GCash. Three hundred thousand pesos din iyon. Malaking halaga pero kulang pang pampagawa ng sarili kong dolomite beach. Pero hindi sila susunod dahil hindi naman talaga sila totoong follower ng palabas ko sa social media.

Ganoon din naman ako. I have been following accounts of political bloggers of the opposition and the ka-DDS kind. While I may be following them, it cannot be said that I am of the same wavelength in trusting their wisdom and thereby, entrusting in them my voice and opinion. 

While I may be a follower, it cannot be said that I am a loyal blind subject sa kanilang palabas. I subscribe. Just a subscription. To read news, rants, and delusions. And if my neurons can no longer take the beating, I can always thank the social media gods for giving me the chance to unfollow, or to block.

The same cannot be said about some people with hyper-inflated egos who believe that numbers of followers determine their relevance in this world of social media fakery na kung tawagin minsan ay palabas. – Rappler.com

Nagtuturo ng seminar in new media, pop culture, research, at creative writing sa Faculty of Arts and Letters, College of Education, at sa Graduate School ng University of Santo Tomas si Joselito D. De Los Reyes, PhD. Siya rin ang program coordinator ng BA Creative Writing program ng nasabing unibersidad. Recipient siya ng 2020 Philippine Normal University Gawad Sulo for Eminent Alumni in the Field of Teacher Education.