Planet Thesis

   I just came from my “lecture” at UP Baguio, where I got Best Thesis honors along with Rosanna, Cherry, and Danileen.  Somehow, the eager young minds of tomorrow really enjoyed my “presentation,” which came across more like the random rantings of a man who has spent too much time in an office cubicle.

   I enjoyed being around familiar ground and familiar people: Prof. Liezl Astudillo, Dr. Mark Calano, Dr. Ray Rovillos, Dr. Lorelei Mendoza, and young scholars working on their thesis proposals for Social Sciences 199.  I appreciated the receptiveness of my audience, some of whom were inspired to do study on virtual environments.

   During my presentation, I had to defend my post-structuralist take on Friendster.com, if only because there is still a lot of resistance against a “nothing outside-the-text” perspective in textual analysis.  One of the more interesting questions came from a young lady who asked if I was unduly influenced by that very perspective.  I wasn’t looking for “the truth” in my research as much as I was looking for patterns.  Another interesting question came from a young man who wanted to know how I analyzed 417 Friendster Profiles: I told him that it was a matter of staying up until the wee hours of the morning reading each and every single one of them.

   But it was nice to be back in UP Baguio, for a change.