Gymnast Carlos Yulo’s triumph at the Paris Olympics has shown us both the good side and the bad side of social media. Despite the efforts of some to dictate the narrative surrounding that triumph, people’s perception prevailed. And that perception was based, I should say, on our culture, or on how Filipinos view the things that happen around them.
Unlike the triumph of our first Olympic gold medalist, Hidilyn Diaz, at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, that of Yulo was totally swallowed by social media. Filipinos’ reaction was initially Hidilyn-like until social media cast light on the skeletons hidden in the Yulo’s family closet. In the old times strongmen, without social media, could control the narrative by clamping down on traditional media and dictating the plot of the story that they wanted to be told.
But social media is a different entity altogether, and everybody now has a platform from which they could present their narrative with only their knowledge, perceptions and conscience, if they have one, guiding them. The Yulo family’s inner turmoil became fodder for a technology whose operation is yet to be bottled inside ethical standards that are now traditional media’s guiding force.
Diaz and her struggles were those of a typical Filipino family and her traditional values dictated her responses to them. She also became a champion when the new information technology was still in its nascent stage. Whatever power people had to know and comment on Hidilyn’s life was still a weak one. When Yulo caught the Filipinos’ attention, social media was already a powerful tool both socially and individually.
Of course, the core problem was the Yulo family’s weakened familial bond. We can’t tell if the same thing is transpiring within Hidilyn’s family because social media is no longer focusing much on her and her family. I didn’t even know that Hidilyn ended up marrying her coach, which is a very good story to tell, if you ask me. I think, though, that Hidilyn and her family continued to be traditional and therefore uncontroversial.
Carlos Yulo, however, is no Hidilyn Diaz and the Yulo family’s dynamics are different. Compounding the situation is his girlfriend who, even Caloy admitted, grew up abroad in a non-traditional setting. If I were to write a story on the Yulo family, the plot would revolve around a traditional Filipino family battling external influences: ambition, economic growth, global lifestyle and viewpoints, modern values, etc.
This is the reason why I wrote in my vlog (The Bong Wenceslao vlog) that Yulo’s next task should be to heal personal rifts and, as the Beatles’ song wished, to get back to where they once belonged. Yulo’s father even expressed that wish when he noted that when they were poor, they were happy and united. As a family man, he wanted to go back to those times of innocence.
But of course, the Yulo family is like the genie that has come out of the bottle. The family, with Carlos’ lead, should now learn to lead a life different from when they started off. There is no going back to the bottle for them.