What is Jejemon?

When I was back home in Pinas, I kept hearing the word Jejemon here and there. Even on television, I kept hearing about it. I asked my Mom about it and she looked at me as if I was speaking another language. Mom just rolled her eyes at me and gave the plainest reply she could muster “I never know anything that is going on nowadays” she said and just continued munching on the dried mangoes I brought her from the grocery.

So I just googled it, and here’s what I found after a few clicks.

Jejemon is a term used for people who not only exxagerate but over exxaggerate the spelling of the words in the keyboard as though they were typing it using a mobile phone.

Wikipedia defines a Jejemon as  “Jejemon is a pop culture phenomenon in the Philippines. Jejemons are defined by Urban Dictionary as those “who has managed to subvert the English language to the point of incomprehensibility and online lynch squads.” A Jejemon is described as one of a “new breed of hipsters who have developed not only their own language and written text but also their own sub-culture and fashion.” Jejemons also imitate “gangster” like attitudes which make them similar to the English chav, Scottish ned, Irish skanger, Russian gopnik and Australian & New Zealand bogan.

The word “Jejemon” supposedly originated from online users’ penchant to type in “hehehe” as “jejeje”, either because “Jeje” is derived from Spanish, whose speakers denote the interjection as laughter, or because the letters “h” and “j” are beside each other, and that it is appended by “-mon” that came from the Japanese anime Pokemon, with “-mon” meant as “monster,” hence “jeje monsters

Here is a perfect example of Jejemons gone wild:

 

And another one.

 

And lastly Wikipedia notes that The Jejemons are said to be the new “jologs”, a term used for Filipinos of the lower income class. Jejemons are often attributed to be of inferior intellect, but this belief may be wrong as a number of them exist in exclusive schools and science high schools. The parameters of being classified as a Jejemon are still unclear, and how the different “levels” of “Jejemonism” are reached, although there are named levels such as “mild,” “moderate” and “severe” or “terminal.

 

In my opinion, this Jejemonism fad should just wear off. It hurts my eyes to read what they write and sometimes a bit challenging too. 

 

Or maybe Im just getting too old?

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