I’m a latecomer to social media, although I do remember signing up on Twitter when Anderson Cooper and Ashton Kutcher told me to do so a few years ago. Anderson because I totally was with him on lambasting Sarah Palin, and Ashton because he is cute and like(d) older women. My Twitter account went on stasis after that – I forgot my password and reinstating it was just too complicated.

I resisted Facebook, and still do. I succumbed to Instagram because it was quick study on my Iphone. In my 4 months of presence there, I garnered a whooping 58 followers. Yey. Then, I found out half of them are not even real people. I try not to post what I eat for breakfast, as I really don’t see the point of oatmeal and cereals, not to mention my probiotics. Still, there are times when out comes my camera when I’m in front of a heaping plate of black truffles lying languorously on top of a bed of pasta, or that time when we had a fantastic seafood meal at Kuta Beach in Bali. I like that I can tweak the colors and collage pics. So full of possibilities. But so far, its making my life boring, especially when Queen Melo posts his photos with Mario Testino and Terry Richardson, and even Glenda Bailey who I prefer so much more than Ana. I need to do more exciting stuff than my regular gym nights.

I just discovered the value of LinkedIn. My profile linked me to fellow egalitarian ants, hardworking publishers that come together just like fellow alcoholics in AA meetings in a group called BtoB Publishing. Finally, a sounding board for my rants and frustrations about media planners who were imperious to my selling charms! Signing in to their discussion board kept me awake til 3am.

The 3am session resulted in this “brilliant” thread. I am the first ranter (please, blogger is an obscene word!) in this newly minted column called SOUNDBITES in our Zee website. If you are over 50, welcome to my world, where I just might impose my beer preference to champagne, and why I think Napoles might just ruin the lifestyle market in Manila. Who wants to be photographed in their Loubotins these days or own a house in Forbes? Other like-minded individuals will join me in this space as the aforementioned Queen Melo in Manila, Cybill Gayatin and Butch Carungay from Cebu. Between the three of them, they should keep your fashion vocabulary current. From the US, Lorna Larrazabal Dietz will give us how life is to our kababayans there, and from down under, Zee editor Marissa Tionko and Carmina del Rosario will give us a Davao-perspective…