As has been said in the earlier parts of this blog, Filipinos really love cellphones. But the thing is cellphones don’t love Pinoys anymore. The mobile phone has been a hub for constant abuses of the Pinoys. Some people abuse themselves, embarking on a saving binge just to buy new phones even if it means starving himself and his/her family. Cellphones have been a status symbol here in the country. People have been able to temporarily cover their deficiency or lack of real wealth by flaunting the nominal wealth that one has now - and mobile phones are one of them.

The mobile phone has been one of the determinants of the Pinoy lifestyle. It has been a social status indicator, a thing to envy for, and a thing to bleed and die for. They use the mobile phone for communication, livelihood, entertainment, for gambling, for pricking people, for looking someone to sex out in a cheap motel, for looking out for a cellphone fling, to make someone feel sorry, to detonate terrorist bombs, and heck. People die just because of mobile phones. Those who get holdupped in the streets who fight against the holduppers’ will to get their cellphones always perish. And that’s sad.

I myself will admit that I am an owner of two convergent mobile phones but I really don’t see why are Pinoys trying to make a lifestyle out of the mobile phone. With that thing happening, there have been also identifiable behaviors that can be seen in Pinoy cellphone users. But most of them are crazy and annoying traits.

These are Pinoy mannerisms in using the phones are also evident among Pinoys. There are also characteristics that distinguish the Pinoy mobile phone user from the others. These are the traits that are easily to be identified and attributed to Pinoy Mobile phone users.

Here are some things inside/seen in the typical Pinoy mobile phone, and also the Pinoy phone mannerisms:

1. A bunch of bad-ass hiphop songs. I have never encountered any friend or acquaintance or schoolmate without any hiphop song in their mobile phone. It can be Chingy, Ludacris, Snoop Dogg or Eminem. Some have that Gagong Rapper song, which I don’t know where it originated from.
2. Repeatedly flaunting of phone in public transpos. There’s nothing wrong in showing us your phone in the LRT/MRT or in public transpo but please, for fuck’s sake. Do not flaunt your phone, especially when I know that I have an N70 and an N71 in my bag and all you have is a 7650. Don’t play freaking music that will deafen the ears of the co-passengers. It draws the attention of the kleps if your phone is really superior, and your phone sucks and I would laugh secretly at you if you are holding a stupid mobile phone.
3. Sex scandals. Who would ever miss this one item that keeps the cellphone a hot item even until now. With the dawn of camera phones and 3G phones, sex scandals have been a normal thing today. You could just go online and look for some - or if you’re not contented, you could do it yourself.
4. Weird and overcooked themes. Themes for cellphones are not bad. In fact, they are good phone enhancements and themes would make your phone better. But come on, some Pinoys need to get kind of picky with themes. Just pick mobile phone themes that are not baduy and at the same time not weird or overdone. Shit. I’m starting to think that my theme is weeeiiird.
5. A bunch of sentimental quotes/”kowts”. Pinoys are known to be sentimental and passionate, so they keep quotes for them to keep the loving passion alive. There are this quotes that tickle the heart, and quotes that will haunt you for turning away from someone who is really not for you. There are also quotes that are sent saying how he/she is hurt even though the recepient is just an unknown textmate.
6. Annoying messages in the inbox. Messages that say “where u na? d2 n me.” or “hi ctc asl”. It’s just fucking annoying. I just hate this texting mannerism. I don’t reply to these messages lolz.
7. Freaky/cool ringtones and WAV tones. Ringtones that freak the hell out of the person whom one is sitting next to like that famous baby laugh tone and the “excuse me boss” tone, or cool ringtones like those tones from Fiveman, Shaider, Masked Rider Black and Power Rangers. There are lots of them.
8. A bunch of textmates. These are people that one has met through mIRC, Yahoo Chat or even in the TV chat channels. These people just get your number from there, and wulla! Txm8s! Or maybe one dude got the number of this hot chick through friendster. Txm8s!
9. Vain (and redundant) pictures. Vanity is one of humanity’s favorite sins, so teh mobile phone is another perfect object to manifest vanity in ourselves. Hundreds of pictures containing different angles of posing but with the same timeframe can be found. Same pictures of different facial expressions can also be found in a typical Pinoy phone. If one gets extremely vain, his/her phone may also be seen with contents his/her nude photo/s.
10. The use of Ü or ü as a smiley. WHO THE FUCK INVENTED THIS GLYPH TO BE A SMILEY? He rules! Lolz! I am also admittedly guilty of this mannerism. I also use the Ü or the ü when I am talking with close lady friends. Not to men. That would be gay of me.
11. Double SIM Cards. If people have this particular SIM card, they would always pair it up with Sun Cellular’s SIM Card. So pairings would be Globe + Sun, Smart + Sun, or in the most absurd case available, Globe + Smart. Pinoys just love to switch SIM cards to fully take advantage of the unlimited services that the network providers are giving.
12. A bunch of mobile phone games. Want to kill time or boredom? Get a hold of a Pinoy mobile phone. It has a lot of games. It’s hard to believe that they have those many games which they obtained from local fake cellphone stores in Greenhills or in Ever Grand Central in Caloocan.
13. Fuckingly stupid animated GIFs. That Gloria Arroyo face in a GRO suit and the Mr. Bean GIF wherein he is only wearing briefs and his banana is fighting againt his underwear is just bullshit. I want to explode the head of the people who made that shit.
14. E-LOAD! E-load is the thing for people who cannot afford to buy prepaid cards but who need to text or call someone immediately. But its disturbing to see jologs people and r0kerzZzZ\m/ trying to queue up in the e-load store everyday and drain out all of their day’s savings for e-load. But if they are not using e-load, they’ll use another alternative which is…
15. Pasaload. This is the last resort for the most desperate people who really need credits but who can’t afford for the moment. Someone will bug and ask you for credits and he or she will go berserk and nuts on you if you don’t grant his plea. What a fucking desperate bastard.
16. sTiCkY CaPs. Fuck you bitches and assholes! I hate people who text this way. I mean one can type out his or her sentences in a straight-forward way and the message screen has been formatted to give out the correct way to message and there are still these people who are so stupid, moron, hard-headed, imbecile, whatever. I hate sticky caps. It’s hard to read and I feel like don’t want to reply to those stupid sticky caps messages.
17. Txt-tlk. PUHLEASE. Type out the damn words. It doesn’t take much effort to text the right way and to make your message recipient understand your message very well. I’m not into this thing because I try to text my words in full. But most Pinoy mobile phone users rly lyk 2 use d txt tlk bcz its ec 2 do n it tks les e4t. Ryt?