Today I deleted my profile information. I thought this was going to be a difficult thing, like deleting a bit of myself - but it actually felt quite liberating. There is still a bit of me there and I haven't god rid of photos yet. I guess the fact that I write a blog is very much indicative of how much of a nerd I am.
I also created 'face to face book', because I so much fear disconnection with people, it will involve me being in the Dagda bar Edinburgh from 9-11pm on Tuesdays, and anyone who wants a relaxed chat coming down, I will bring upwords and an exciting card game called bang.It was also a bit of a shameless way to get people to read this blog....
A friend who i like very much, but have only met a few times (and she lives in the states) wrote to me today to make sure I didn't disappear off the face of the planet. This made me feel all warm inside, and also made me realise that facebook is really good for maintaining links with distant people who you really like. It's also probably why I will continue to use it after this month is over.
In myspace style - current mood, optomistic looking forward to being liberated. I also have a pain in my hand from typing too much, this is not good.
Incidentaly I will also be abstaining from myspace, if I went on that it would be like giving up fags by smoking cigars (hmm lots of smoking analogies, I hope I am not subconciously about to replace one addiction with another...........)
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Penultimate Paranoia
It's 12:40 am and here I am up on facebook, penultimately. Today I read a conversation 2 of my friends were having on their walls about God and Richard Dawkins, it was interesting. Even though reading it was a bit like spying it also made me feel in some way connected. Wall to wall is like being part of a conversation, but not being the speaking one. I start to feel like giving up facebook is giving up 'connectedness' - no one will post on my wall, I won't be able to make jokey comments, how will I know what people are doing? Will i be forgotten about, left behind? I'm not sure if it was Dawkins who talked about genes and memes, that we either want to leave genes behind, or bits of ourself in the form of art etc. Now we are able to leave bits of ourselves all over the internet. Jokes that we make become permenant, we can assert our opinions all over the place, but it's in this weird world of the semi-real.
On a less ' duude it's 1am and I feel deep man' note, another friend offered to be my secret facebook spy for the month. To let me in to look, but not act. I declined this offer ( though I very much appreciate its generosity;)
Having a spy would be like trying to give up smoking by going outside to sniff fags, or licking the bottoms of ashtrays - undignified and bound to lead to a relapse.
I have preserved the anonymity of my friends and hope that people don't mind being written about, but if you do just comment.
On a less ' duude it's 1am and I feel deep man' note, another friend offered to be my secret facebook spy for the month. To let me in to look, but not act. I declined this offer ( though I very much appreciate its generosity;)
Having a spy would be like trying to give up smoking by going outside to sniff fags, or licking the bottoms of ashtrays - undignified and bound to lead to a relapse.
I have preserved the anonymity of my friends and hope that people don't mind being written about, but if you do just comment.
2 days to go
So there are 2 days left with my virtual identity intact. I thought for the purposes of experimentation I should go on it A LOT (yup - to a CAPS LOCK extreme) in the last few days of January.
It is working and I think I am actually getting bored of the social network.Does that mean that facebook is less addictive than heroin or alcohol? or could it be that blogging is the real shit, the hard stuff. It is more anti-social, more attention seeking... could I just be going from one geeky compulsion to a worse one?
I guess only time will tell.
It is working and I think I am actually getting bored of the social network.Does that mean that facebook is less addictive than heroin or alcohol? or could it be that blogging is the real shit, the hard stuff. It is more anti-social, more attention seeking... could I just be going from one geeky compulsion to a worse one?
I guess only time will tell.
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Why?
I decided to give up facebook for a month for quite a few reasons. There are plenty of scary privacy invasion/ marketing things which you can read about here:-
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/jan/14/facebook
When I read that article I thought that it was time to get rid of facebook, so I went to delete my profile information and I found that I didn't want to. I liked my own flattering constructed identity, I wanted people to know that I'm a feminist who loves gorkys. I wanted all my 'oh so endearing' quirks displayed and veiwable.
I wanted random acquaintences to know what sort of music/films/books I like because, you know, they might like the same music/films/books, and then after some thorough poking we would type our way into the sunset .....
Facebook allows us to represent ourselves so that information that would usually take a little while to find out is instantly accessible. I think my virtual self is simoultaneously more and less me.
I would never put one of my interests as 'Routing through charity/vinatage shops for clothes' because it is not part of the 'me' that I want to represent (too vain/shallow too much conforming to indie girl norms). It is something that I do ridiculously often though...
I include amusing quotes rather than serious ones - feminism is much farther down my list of interests and activities than is actually justified, really it is not me. Then again it is - I have difficulty taking things very seriously, I do like music and films a lot. If I delete my profile, am I deleting a little part of me? When I write that I think , god that's ludicrous, but really I mean the internet is definately a public space which people exist in, and 'networking sites' form the main medium of this interaction.
The fact that I didn't want to get rid of this made me feel as if perhaps, I was too attached to my 'virtual identity'. Also I go on the damned thing far too often because I like people watching. I always have enjoyed looking at people and wondering things about them from the way the walk/dress/appear and facebook totally encourages this. Looking at profiles is just like people watching only you find out a lot more, and you can do it anywhere or any time ( particularly when you are supposed to be writing essays or going to sleep)
So I have decided to give up facebook for a month and to find out if this increases my productivity/sleep and maybe even the strength of my friendships ( hopefully I won't lose touch with too many people). I decided to write a blog about it because I still want people to look at me on the internet. I also really like writing, and without television I am not sure how I would fill my procrastination time !!
Anyway it promises to be an epic journey filled with powerful insight into 21st century interaction. Or something. Thanks for reading - comments are very welcome :)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/jan/14/facebook
When I read that article I thought that it was time to get rid of facebook, so I went to delete my profile information and I found that I didn't want to. I liked my own flattering constructed identity, I wanted people to know that I'm a feminist who loves gorkys. I wanted all my 'oh so endearing' quirks displayed and veiwable.
I wanted random acquaintences to know what sort of music/films/books I like because, you know, they might like the same music/films/books, and then after some thorough poking we would type our way into the sunset .....
Facebook allows us to represent ourselves so that information that would usually take a little while to find out is instantly accessible. I think my virtual self is simoultaneously more and less me.
I would never put one of my interests as 'Routing through charity/vinatage shops for clothes' because it is not part of the 'me' that I want to represent (too vain/shallow too much conforming to indie girl norms). It is something that I do ridiculously often though...
I include amusing quotes rather than serious ones - feminism is much farther down my list of interests and activities than is actually justified, really it is not me. Then again it is - I have difficulty taking things very seriously, I do like music and films a lot. If I delete my profile, am I deleting a little part of me? When I write that I think , god that's ludicrous, but really I mean the internet is definately a public space which people exist in, and 'networking sites' form the main medium of this interaction.
The fact that I didn't want to get rid of this made me feel as if perhaps, I was too attached to my 'virtual identity'. Also I go on the damned thing far too often because I like people watching. I always have enjoyed looking at people and wondering things about them from the way the walk/dress/appear and facebook totally encourages this. Looking at profiles is just like people watching only you find out a lot more, and you can do it anywhere or any time ( particularly when you are supposed to be writing essays or going to sleep)
So I have decided to give up facebook for a month and to find out if this increases my productivity/sleep and maybe even the strength of my friendships ( hopefully I won't lose touch with too many people). I decided to write a blog about it because I still want people to look at me on the internet. I also really like writing, and without television I am not sure how I would fill my procrastination time !!
Anyway it promises to be an epic journey filled with powerful insight into 21st century interaction. Or something. Thanks for reading - comments are very welcome :)
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