My Fifteen Minutes on Facebook and Myspace
It’s so fitting that the NYT magazine ran an article this weekend titled I’m So Totally, Digitally Close to You: How News Feed, Twitter and Other Forms of Incessant Online Contact Have Created a Brave New World of Ambient Intimacy because last Monday, after being told by approximately a bizillion people that I really, really needed to embrace new millennial social networking or else risk being doomed to obsolescence, I caved in and created profiles on Facebook and MySpace.
Fifteen minutes later, I terminated them.
Why? The answer is shockingly simple: As I started answering the questions about my favorite everythings, I got totally, digitally BORED OUT OF MY CURMUDEGONLY SKULL. When it comes down to it, I just don’t have enough interest in creating, recreating and updating my virtual self. I understand why it appeals to millions of people–especially those who can’t remember a world WITHOUT the Internet–but for me, it’s all too much effort. And if I want be a productive novelist–and I do–this blog is about all I can handle.
Given my disinterest in Twitter and devotion to the dead-tree arts, it would seem that I am indeed doomed to obsolescence. I’m an abacus. The telegraph. Silent films. Black and White TVs. Eight-tracks. Mimeographs. Betamax. Atari 5200. Sanitary napkin belts. CDs. Friendster.
Then again… A need to swap stories is a distinctly human trait. I can only hope that there will always be an audience of readers who are interested in hearing mine.
Even if I connect with them the old-fashioned way.
Even if we aren’t “friends.”
Tags: facebook
