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inferences for the reasons behind this, and stated that although the youth of ‘Generation.com' are highly involved in the virtual political arena, they spend more time building relationships among themselves, among people who have the same interests as they do, rather than with the candidates they are said to be supporting. In effect, voter turnout from the youth still seems to be unaffected by the growing trend of involvement in SNSs.

According to Kanter (2008), political relationships that have more chances of lasting longer than usual are those founded in good communication and good constituent services. Both of which can also be attained or at least explored in the field of SNSs; however, the virtual support and communications cannot replace the value that physical and human connections can in politics (Kanter, 2008; Karan & Tandoc, 2008).

五、菲律宾的互联网和社交网络——E. Internet and SNSs in the Philippines
Friendster that launched in 2002 is one of the first SNSs in the World Wide Web. After a couple of years, its popularity in the United States plunged rapidly owing to “massive technical problems and server delays” (boyd & Ellison, 2007). As the American audience dwindled, Friendster gradually gained users from Southeast Asia starting in the Philippines (PBS.org, 2007). Carmen Leilani de Jesus, a Filipino-American marketing consultant and hypnotist, was the first Friendster user to introduce the SNS to the Philippines, where a number of her friends reside (PBS.org, 2007).

Since then, the Philippines saw a major increase in the presence and use of SNSs. Universal McCann's 2008 research on social media, “Power To The People - Wave3” indicates that 83.1% of Filipinos participate in SNSs, making it “the social networking capital of the world”. Today, Filipinos are considered as the top photo uploaders and web video viewers, and second in the number of video uploaders and blog readers (Lai, 2008; Universal McCann, 2008).

By 2008, 7.9 million Filipinos utilize the Internet; 6.9 million of them visit an SNS at least once a month (Yazon, 2008). Several times, Friendster became the most visited website in the Philippines, according to web tracking site Alexa (Ling, 2008).

Among Filipino Multiply users, seventy percent are below the age of 25; 60 percent are female. In contrast, Filipino Friendster users are between the ages 16 to 30, with 55 percent of them female (Salazar, 2008).

The social networking trend in the Philippines can be traced from the Filipinos' culture of “friends helping friends” (PBS.org, 2007). For Filipinos, “their friends and who they know can become more valuable than money, especially when what they need can be achieved through nepotism, favoritism, and friendship among others” (PBS.org, 2007).

The social networking's immense power was tested in the country's 2007 national elections when then senatorial candidates Francis Escudero and Antonio Trillanes III constructed their own Friendster profiles to seek support from net-users (Legaspi, 2007). They eventually won seats in the Senate (PBS.org, 2007). Since then, several local public figures have built and maintained their own Friendster profiles to communicate with their (prospective) followers and constituents (Marinay, 2008).

六、奥巴马现象——F. The Obama Phenomenon
The big role that SNSs can pla