Saturday, October 11, 2014

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Group 1: BFF Fries
Castillo, Joshua
dela Cruz, Krysta Eunice
Rodriguez, Bianca
Sanqui, Cienzi Anne
Sundiam, Danica Isabelle


1.   Who is the identity you want to imitate? Why did you choose this identity?
The group imitated the group or stereotype jejemons. The group chose jejemons, because they became a big fuss around 4 years ago, because of their socially unaccepted way of chatting, talking, and acting, and even until now jejemons are still around, which made the group want to put themselves in the shoes of the jejemons and see the reactions of people, in particular the Ateneo society. We wanted to see the effects of being a jejemon in a school that is known for being sosyal or being fashionable. 

2. What is your identity’s main function in the society?
Jejemons as a pop culture phenomenon is best explained by the sociological concept of the deviant. Based on Emile Durkheim’s structural functionalism perspective deviants’ function in the society by affirming the cultural norms and values of a society and clarification of right and wrong. By distinguishing which languages are wrong, it affirms which the standard langaunge. For example was in 2010, when the DepEd was outrageous to its in popularity in 2010. According to the DepEd, the jejemon phenomenon is responsible to the prevalence of spelling errors in academic writing but it also affirms what is the standard language. But of course, it does not prevent jejemon language from breaking in to the standard languange.
Language is rapidly changing and evolving. What the improper use of language today, might be the standard of tomorrow. In fact in 2010, “jejemon” was chosen as the word of the year and one of the words to be included in the “UP Diksiyonaryong Filipino.” It just show the structural function of the Jejemon language into the evolution of the language.
More than the standardization of the language and evolution of the language, Jejemon language also brings a sense of unity to the speakers. It’s what distinguishes them from other groups in society. However, jejemon deviance also has some its dysfunctions. First, is creates a group of outcast in a society because of how people think of them. Second is that it creates a class division in the society. In fact, jejemons are the new jologs of the society and most of them belong in the lower class. Third is it corrupts the language. However, not all corruption in the languages are not socially frowned. For example, are the conyos. Both Jejemons and conyos, corrupt the language but because different classes use them, it creates a social stigmatization for both.

3. How does he/she look like?
The typical and modern jejemons we see wear oversized shirts, jersey sleevless, baggy/ jersey shorts, cap, long and colorful socks, high cut sneakers, bling blings and bandana worn on the forehead. Based from our researches and observations, jejemons don't really have expensive or high-end gadgets. They usually own phones like Nokia, my phone (locally produced phone) , or Alcatel. Most Jejemons in the Philippines don't really mind the brands of the phones they use as long as they can take selfies and  get to communicate with their friends or families. Though most jejemons now own phones that have built-in front cameras, they still give more importance to the sms services the phone brand gives.
In terms of their physical appearance, jejemoms are mostly morena since they are usually the ones who are always outside hanging out with their groups or "tropas". Guy jejemoms dye their hair in whatever color they want and they follow the k-pop hairstyle (sided bangs with spikes). Girl jejemoms, on the other hand, maintain their hair colors and sometimes, they keep their ponytails high. Of course, caps or bandanas will always be part of their hair accessory. Guy jejemoms don't color their nails while girl jejemoms usually have colorful nails. They prefer have colorful outfits and they are artistic in the way they dress in the sense that they get to mix and match a lot of clothes or pieces of accessory to look the way the think they should look.

4. How does he/she speak and behave?
The jejemons most of the time, come in groups of friends, and they tend to have the same outfits and mode of speaking.  They have a way of texting where in they tend to replace some of the letters that they use with numbers or sometimes, they even add more unnecessary letters such as Zs, Fs, Us etc. This is actually one of the main reasons for the conceptualization of the word “Jejemon” (Jeje- they way they laugh, instead of hehehe).  However, the way they text is not really reflected on how they talk in person.
 It is there are varying levels of being a jejemon. First of all, there is the mild jejemon, where in there is the use of short cuts but the words are still understandable. Second, the moderate jejemons add the letters F, H, Q, and Z where it is not really needed. Third, the severe jejemons use numbers instead of letters. Lastly, terminal jejemons are those who create words that are not even understandable anymore. This is precisely what the parents of these jejemons are scared of, that their children might forget how to spell words correctly. Nonetheless, these jejemons suggest that they are still in control of the way they spell words both on text message and in school.
In line with that, the way they behave is very “Filipino” wherein sometimes, they actually find the people who speak in English “maarte” or what not. We can see that there is a need for them to use the Filipino language instead of English, because that is how they can use their style of texting more effectively. Their behavior is also very much reflected in the clothes that they wear, where in they don’t dress up like other people do. This is said to be because they want to stand out, and they don’t want to be “boring”, in both clothing and way of texting.

5. What are their beliefs in life? What are their values?
            Their beliefs include the fact that they think and believe that their way of spelling things are correct. They take to heart their habits of using extra letters and numbers in their lives. In one documentary, there were two ‘jejemons’ asked to write something in normal Filipino - and they used different capitalizations and spellings even when writing a formal and normal sentence. When asked why they capitalized the letter l specifically, they answered that it looked boring and dull if the small letter l was used. That was technically the basis for their use of extra letters and numbers - to make it look more interesting, lively, and fun.
            Most documentaries show that they have little value on whether or not they are doing grammar correctly. They are more concerned with making their sentences more interesting in a way where it does not look boring. Their lack of concern or value on the proper use of grammar then results to an effect on them - they do not bother to correct their spellings and grammar usage anymore. This brings about the growing concern for the generation today, since most of these ‘jejemons’ come from these kids, since they care not for the correct grammar use and proper spelling.

6. How does his or her day look like?
In a sociological perspective the day of a jejemon would be the same as the days of someone who is not a jejemon, because what is normal is actually socially constructed. Hence, in the perspective of the jejemons how they dress, how they talk, and how they act for them are natural, especially if they surround themselves with people who are like them or have the same interests. For those who are not jejemons they would deem it as unnatural, because jejemons do not act the way society wants them to. Based on the breaching experiment though, the group realized that jejemons would go about their lives doing the same things others do (eat, go out, go work, and etc.), but others seeing them would look at them strangely, and would probably laugh. (This is proven in the videos).

7. Any sociological/personal reflections? How did it feel being another person for a day?
In the sociology aspect, we witnessed how the society judges jejemons. There are people who laugh at us for being jejemons and it is sad to think that until now, there is still stereotyping happening in the society. Jejemons are considered to deviate from the norm because they are not part of the majority. For the personal part, acting like jejemons even just for a short time felt really weird. It was weird because we had to act like other people whom we don't share common personalities with. We really had to study how jejemons act and speak because we don't want to offend anyone. We really tried to act naturally so that we will be able to portray the jej on image well. When we were acting like jejemons in the Gonzaga cafeteria, people started laughing at us and they were mocking the way we act and speak. Because of this, we (the group) felt that the reason why other people acted that way is because they consider jejemons deviant. Though a lot of other people criticize jejemons, we believe that there are reasons why they choose to act that way. Pressure and trend can influence people to be jejemons. After the activity, we realized that people should not judge jejemoms because they are still part of the society.  People judge jejemons based on jejemons they dress. However, we don't really find anything wrong with how they dress because it is a way for them to express their feelings freely. Also, people tend to Criticize the way they text other people. We know that it is difficult to stop this discrimination but we must also understand why they text that way. As part of the society, we must also consider the possible reasons why they prefer texting in a jejemon way (examples include Ellohz pohz, dito na mehz, etc) such as finding it easier for themselves to express their opinions in that manner and they choose to go with the trend.
In the end, acting like jejemons was fun. We considered the activity as a challenge and as an opportunity for us to experience being someone who we are not. We felt that it was the right time for us to deviate from the norms be trying to portray the role of a group of people whom people consider "others". Others" in the sense that they don't look or act the way majority of the people in the society do. Lastly, we learned more about how jejemons live and the facts that triggered them to be jejemons.

Videos:

Other sources:
http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/video/122723/investigativedocumentaries/jejemon-and-the-filipino-language
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yEZukc6p1Cw

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