Pinoy tweeps ask, does doomsday schedule follow time zones?

We are now living in the post-apocalyptic world. That could've been the case had the May 21 doomsday prediction of Harold Camping — founder of US-based Christian broadcast network Family Radio — come true. But it didn't because we're all still around except for the average number of people who die each day. Yet Camping and his disciples managed to get themselves and their dire forecast in the news for several days by giving out leaflets and hanging up banners announcing the end of the world on May 21. The palpable absurdity of the prediction of Camping — who had already incorrectly foretold the world's end back in 1994 — gave Pinoy Internet users reason to have some fun on social networks by ridiculing, disputing, and sarcastically preparing for Camping's Saturday deadline. Nope, online Filipinos are apparently not a very gullible bunch when it comes to end-of-the-world scenarios. The netizens' initial tongue-in-cheek concern: does the apocalypse come on a per-timezone basis? "Don't worry about the end of the world. It's already tomorrow in Australia!" tweeted @chloetoribio on Saturday morning. Suffice it to say, the Judgment Day's exact time stirred a lot of confusion among Pinoy users online. "It says that May 12, 2011, 6pm is the exact time and date of the #endoftheworld. That's in USA timezone, here in Phil it's on May 22, 6am," noticed user @jmegana011197 "kung #endoftheworld bukas, aling timezone ang susundin natin? synchronized pa ang pag-end? Or sino mauna sa May21, mauuna mag end?" @legendarymommy asked. Nevertheless — and despite their initial disbelief — Pinoy netizens stayed glued to their monitors on three possible occasions: at the turn of day on May 21; at 6:00 in the evening in Manila, the original time Camping said the End of Days would come; and at 2:00 am on May 22, when the clock struck six in the evening in the United States. While a vast many were non-believers of Camping's claims, some wanted to make sure they wouldn't regret their last day on Earth and took the time to say their final thoughts to loved ones online. Some, like @JackSTAR7, took the opportunity to confess: "Since they say that #rupture #endoftheworld will be tom.. so it would be the perfect time. @Kat_R3 i love you very much. You're the best!" "#endoftheworld: sa college friends ko, mamimiss ko kayo ng sobra sobra. sa mga crush at naging crush ko, hello!! crush ko kayo!!" admitted @katnobleza. "@PilyangShet thanks sa pagging pakialamera, sa big concern, sa gft of friendship! Love you bebe! #endoftheworld keme!! Mwah!" @JoDoMu4u shared. Naysayers, however, offered their religious and sometimes quirky reasons why the end of the world wouldn't end on Saturday, in an apparent effort to discredit the doomsayers.

Doomsday curiosity Some Pinoys took the news with a grain — nay, a ton — of salt, but some didn't dismiss it outright either, if not out of belief then out of sheer curiosity about what could come out of the forthcoming end. During the past week, Google Insights for search showed a steady increase of searches for the term "end of the world" from the Philippines, rising steadily until would-be Judgment Day itself. Probably noticing increased online activity surrounding the topic, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention website drew up a satirical emergency preparedness bulletin in case the doomsday scenario ended up to be a Zombie Apocalypse. A Zombie Apocalypse is a phenomenon often depicted in pop culture as the once-dead taking over the world and feeding on the bodies of the living, turning them into zombies themselves. "You may laugh now, but when it happens you’ll be happy you read this, and hey, maybe you’ll even learn a thing or two about how to prepare for a real emergency," it warned. Not surprisingly, the unusual post on a typically solemn web site piqued so much interest among Internet users that the site eventually crashed as it drew more than 60,000 hits on Wednesday. Trending in the Philippines For many social media users, the apocalypse snafu dominated their attention during a slow news weekend. A few hours before Friday eased into May 21, five out of the top ten trending topics on Twitter in the Philippines were about the alleged second coming of Christ: #endoftheworld, #iftheworldendsonsaturday, Harold Camping, Only God and Zombie Apocalypse. A graph from Twitter analytics site Trendistic, meanwhile, showed worldwide tweets about #endoftheworld, the top trending topic during that period, peaking at 8pm on Friday, at 12am, 3pm, 6pm and 8pm on Saturday, and again at 12am on Sunday. Twitter geolocation tool Trendsmap, on the other hand, showed #endoftheworld being one of the most talked about topics in the Philippines at the break of May 21. Needless to say, any online panic about the apocalypse that came more than a year earlier than the original Mayan prediction easily fizzled out after the deadline passed, giving all non-believers permission to gloat all they want. - HS, GMA News