Goodbye voice tape, hello YouTube

Unless you were born a minute ago, you should know about Alyssa Alano's butchery of English and Kris Aquino's bitchery to a couple of young fans. We wouldn't have known about these were it not for the Internet. Come to think of it, the lives of Filipinos have always been intertwined with technology. Today, it's normal to talk about the latest hits on YouTube, blog or podcast. And then there's the mobile phone, through which families of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) now keep in touch. Before the Internet, OFW families narrowed the geographic gap by using inventive ways. Remember voice tapes? While others used snail mail and long distance to keep in touch with loved ones in the 1980s, Filipinos innovated through the use of audio cassettes. And this happened at a time when audio tapes were being used to distribute Air Supply and Bonnie Tyler, or to record dictation and interviews.