Freeman Cebu Entertainment

Fan

CHANNEL SURFING - Althea Lauren Ricardo -

February 18, 2010 | 12:00am

There's a new trend on Facebook that's been causing my notifications to spike up and cluttering my wall: people are making Fan Pages of just about anything they can think about. To be fair, many of them are interesting and funny, and some really feed our collective nostalgia for things long gone. There's a Fan Page for Magnolia Chocolait in glass bottles; another for Rodic's tapsilog that most University of the Philippines-Diliman graduates have loved at one time or another. There's one for “Nung bata ako kumain ako ng nectar ng santan sa garden :)),” which I almost joined, but didn't, when I remembered that very few of these pages are well-maintained.

I've been a fan ever since I first watched television. If I'm not mistaken, my first TV love was Popeye the Sailorman, which I first heard about in kindergarten because all my classmates were talking about it. I'm pretty sure it was being shown on either Channel 2 or Channel 4, because back then, the only channels with clear reception were Channels 7 and 9--at least as far as our big, wooden-paneled TV, one that doubled as furniture, was concerned.

Just to get in on the buzz, my brother and I would cover the TV with our nap time mat and crawl inside. This way, it was dark enough to watch grainy Popeye eat spinach to beat Bluto and win the heart of Olive Oyl. Now, the sound quality was another problem altogether, but it didn't seem that much of an issue for a five-year-old who had yet to learn English.

Soon after that, we got a new TV and a Betamax player and a solid affair with TV and film began. I can probably still enumerate the many shows, characters, actors, directors and writers I'm a fan of, but I won't even try. Let's just say that one of my big goals is to get a complete DVD set of The Wonder Years, once they make it; that I still would marry Pierce Brosnan, if he's single and he asks; that I'm holding my breath for Glee, Dexter, and True Blood; and that I still think of Matt Mendoza from time to time.

I'll always be a fan of something, I think. Even on Facebook.

I also became a fan of most of the presidential candidates' offical Facebook Fan Page, just to be updated on their comings and goings and whatnot, but I don't think many of their people know exactly how to weild the power of social media just yet. I've since left their Fan Pages and just monitor their Twitter accounts.

Still, I find myself checking out the Fan Pages my friends join, thanks to Facebook's Suggestion feature. Right now, for some reason, I'm being asked to be a fan of Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III and his sister Kris Aquino-Yap. But a few days before that, it was “Mas nauna pa ang tawa mo, kesa sa kwento mo.”

And wait! There's more!

Here are some of the quirky Facebook Fan Pages Facebook suggested for me to join:

“Papunta na 'ko! (Pero 'di pa umaalis ng bahay).”

“I don't sleep enough because I stay up late for no reason”

“Pretending to text in awkward situations”

“Shut up. The world won't end in 2012.”

“Dislike Button”

“I hate getting texts that only say 'k'”

“Buti Pa Ang Biglaang Lakad Natutuloy; Ang Planado, Hindi!”

“Pasok ka? (Di ko alam, kaw?) Ewan ko rin. Tara wag na tayo pasok.”

“Sa bus ako pinaka nage-enjoy kapag field trip.”

And my personal favorite, the “Hindi porket” pages, one of which is “Hindi porket may DSLR ka, photographer ka na!”