Book

Facebook is definitely the new blogiverse.

Blogging started out as a means of sharing interesting links and commenting on them. As more people became net-users the concept morphed into general self-publishing. People could "blog" and it would mean whatever they wanted it to mean: An online diary, a means of sharing pictures, a place to shout back at politicians and pretend they were listening. For some of us, a place to practice writing and get immediate and qualified feedback.

Now Facebook does most of that, and it's much easier. What it doesn't do is create a literary space. You can write there, but the slam-bam nature of it is discouraging. I wouldn't bother.

A huge difference is it's not very anonymous. It can be if you want, but that denies the point of it. Through Facebook you can make yourself, your true self, accessible. If you don't want to do that, then don't use Facebook. Don't be accessible, etc. Your choice.

I chose to try it and the results are interesting. My Facebook presence has taken on three distinct personalities, reflecting the three distinct groups of people that I'm hooked up to.

First is the internet writerly crowd, the entertaining and argumentative crew that got to know itself on usenet five and more years ago (no, that link won't work if you're not already set up for it -- I know, cause I'm not, and I tried it, and it doesn't work, but the URL is correct anyway). I've denied it before but the truth is they are friends, the unique sorts of friends that were virtually impossible to have before the 21st Century. Their antics keep me going back to F/B as often as I do, just to see in a moment of corporate-cubicle ennui what's going on.

Second is family and family friends, none of whom are particularly computerwise and have therefore only flowered as link-sharers and photo-posters with the advent of Facebook. It's a great way to stay in touch more than you ever thought you'd want to be.

Third appears to be old high school people. I could mention work, because I've a few co-workers in there. But I really don't want to interact with co-workers in the silly and informal Facebook milieu. Fellow employees, okay. But not actual colleagues, and I won't bother to explain why. High school people are starting to pop up, however, and it's kind of amazing. Someone will find me whom I last had a good conversation with in 1976, and their list of friends will include names I had forgotten since Ford was in office, and their friends will include others, and damn. There's a party goin' on.

I don't have weird atavistic reactions to high school like some folks do. I got nothing against anyone back there. I didn't make many friends and lost contact with everyone pretty quickly, but no bridges were burnt and in fact, by now, even a burnt bridge can grow back again. So I find it pleasant, almost comforting, to think of reconnecting with these various people. I'm doing so slowly. I'm not the sort to go, "I remember you, let's be 'friends'!". I like to keep my Facebook friends as real people with whom I have a real connection and not just because we were both at Caz one year. But it's a happening, a 'hey, this is nice' sort of thing. The distance is controlled. We can do this.

That's all. The post summary is: Seeing faces from over three decades back is a good thing by and large -- maybe we'll meet up at the multi-year picnic this summer; and lowered blog traffic and lowered blog activity reinforce one another, and so this thing's day are numbered. They're numbered anyway, for other reasons, but except for occasional bursts of exceptional energy, I expect this page of mine to fade into the weeds of the internet, like a warehouse at the edge of a former boomtown. I'm okay with that, because I've a sneaking suspicion the sort of writing I wanted to develop in a blog has actual markets, if I only look for them and write up to them. See you there.