Does the multi-billion peso mobile phone businesses of the Zobel-Ayala clan’s Globe Telecom, Manny Pangilinan/First Pacific Group’s Smart and the new dynamic cellular service of Gokongwei-owned Digitel come mostly from romantic messages sent via text? What can the country’s top card producers – Harry Uytengsu Limtong of Blue Mountain cards, Henry Lim Bon Liong of Sterling cards and the legendary National Book Store founder Socorro C. Ramos of Hallmark Greeting Cards – do to get the public sending more cards?
I once read a book that chronicles what is supposedly the longest – and simplest – love letter ever written. It was the work of Paris painter Marcel de Leclure in 1875 for his aristocratic love interest Magdalene de Villalore. The love letter only contained the French words "Je vous aime" or "I Love You" written by a hired scribe 1,875,000 times (or equivalent to 1,000 times the calendar years of the date). Imbued with extraordinary love, he dictated the phrase and had the hired scribe to repeat the phrase each time he wrote it down. The whole effort had combined oral and written expressions 5,625,000 times before it was sent to his beloved woman. How can the best SMS text messages equal this most grandiloquent love letter?
It was German conglomerate Siemens which, in December 2002 commissioned a survey with 1,400 interviews in the Philippines, Indonesia, India, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand. The survey focused on how mobile phones affect love and relationships among the youth. A world leader in mobile devices, infrastructure, applications and even products for wireless home networks, Siemens Mobile commissioned Asia Market Intelligence to survey males and females of these six countries within two age brackets (15 to 19 years and 20 to 29 years).
Siemens Mobile Philippines country manager Lavenia Revilla told Philippine STAR: "The Siemens Mobile Lifestyle Survey takes an interesting look at how mobile phones have become so much a part of our everyday lives. We live and breathe through our mobile phones, and our lives are increasingly revolving around them now."
Siemens Mobile marketing manager Clare D. Alvarez said jokingly, "Look at me. I use three different kinds of Siemens Mobile phones, I maintain three cell phone numbers due to the huge numbers of my suitors. Seriously, young people of our generation are blessed to have mobile phones, and I hope we become better people to our loved ones."
Siemens Mobile product services manager Dennison Lim said, "Can you imagine love and romance nowadays without a mobile phone? This importance of mobile phones is a constant challenge to Siemens and all other manufacturers to come out with newer, better, easier to use mobile phones."
Only 13 percent of Southeast Asians switch off their mobile phones when they are with their partners – with more men than women doing so. Lowest numbers came from the Philippines: 11 percent of males switch off cell phones, while only 6 percent of females do so. Coming close at second lowest was Thailand with males at 11 percent and females at 7 percent. The highest number is Indonesia, with males at 28 percent and females at 17 percent.
Do cell phone users flirt with people they have never personally met over the mobile phone? More men do so than women. The survey says Indonesians rank first with males at 28 percent and females at 22 percent; Filipino males, 27 percent and females, 24 percent; Thai males, 27 percent and females, 18; Malaysian males, 22 percent and females, 19 percent; Singaporian males, 19 percent and females, nine percent; Indian males, 16 percent and females, 14 percent.
Have you broken up with your boyfriend or girlfriend through text messages? Survey shows Southeast Asians prefer to do it the traditional way – personally. Indonesians scored highest with 18 percent; Philippines, 15 percent; India, 12 percent; Singapore and Thailand, 11 percent; and Malaysia, 6 percent.
Do you create and send personalized ring tones and logos to your love partner? Thais rank first with 45 percent; Indonesians, 41 percent; Singaporeans, 40 percent; Malaysians, 39 percent; Filipinos, 38 percent; and Indians, 28 percent.
How about sending intimate text messages to the wrong number? The Philippines ranks first with 35 percent, Singaporeans next with 28 percent, Malaysians with 23 percent, Indonesians with 20 percent, Thais with 18 percent and Indians with 16 percent.
Have you changed your mobile phone number to avoid being harassed by an ex-lover? Filipinos have the highest percentage in this category at 17 percent; Indonesia, 16 percent; Malaysia, 12 percent; Thailand, 11 percent; India, 10 percent; and Singapore, 5 percent.
Have you quarreled with your partner via text messages instead of directly shouting at each other? Females are more hot-tempered on the phone than men. The Philippines is highest with males at 33 percent and females at 41 percent; Indonesia comes close with males at 32 percent and females at 42 percent; Singaporeans has males at 28 percent and females at 39 percent; Thai males at 25 percent and females at 28 percent.
Have you used a mobile phone chat site before? Only 17 percent had, and majority were women.
The Siemens Mobile Lifestyle Survey asked young people: Would you rather send a text message than read a book to kill time? In the Philippines, 49 percent of teenagers from ages 15 to 19 said yes, so did 44 percent of the youth aged 20 to 29. Indonesia and Malaysia had the highest numbers, with 60 percent of their teenagers answering yes. The other countries had almost half their young people saying yes, too.
All is not hopeless in the Philippines, whatever many of our self-centered and dim-witted politicians may do to wreck our republic and destabilize our economy. Despite being the undisputed world power in text messages, the Siemens Mobile survey surprisingly showed that except for Filipinos, most Southeast Asians and South Asians feel incomplete without their cell phones. Only 36 percent of Filipinos feel incomplete without their mobile phones, in stark contrast to the Thais at 80 percent, Indonesians at 79 percent, Malaysians at 76 percent, Singaporeans at 67 percent and Indians 55 percent.
If the good news is true that Filipinos are the most romantically expressive yet not overly hooked to cell phones, can we then channel this romantic fervor towards better national optimism, more faith in a better Philippine future and increased economic productivity?