21 July 2009

Help! I'm Being Held Hostage by Facebook!

I'm still alive. I've even been online. Just ... not here. Okay, let's just get this over with. I'm a Facebooker. I know. I know! Resistance was futile.

I only did it as a way to connect with a group of kids who went through this year's Freedom School. But it kind of sucks you in. Like the Borg. I was all, "I'm only going to friend the Freedom School kids. Oh ... and the adult community organizers, I guess they have to be on there, too." But then, I realized I can't not accept my kids' friend requests. And then these requests started coming in from real-life friends who were already Facebooking. So it was like, okay, but only these friends; it will be a great way to stay in touch, since I suck ass at that kind of thing. Then my uncle, aunt, cousins and sister were on, and then folks I used to hang with in Hungary, and then ... yeah.

Snowballed.

It's kind of chapping the ass of my comfort zone though. You can't be anonymous on FB. Blogging, yeah, anybody can see your blog, but they don't know it's you. Unless you tell them. And with a pseudonym, no one can search for you. It's safe. Like you have control. You don't have to worry about pissing off the mayor or your coworkers or your mom with your "crazy Left Coast notions". You may piss off strangers, but who the hell cares?

I found myself wanting a compartmentalized Facebook experience. Like, one FB window for my ultra-liberal homies, another FB for family who just want to know what the kids are up to but don't want to hear about universal health care, another FB for the official city/county people I do work with, another FB for the old crew, another FB for the youth we're mentoring ... you know, like that.

But no. That's not the way Facebook works. Oh, no. It's one big old cyberfest. La-di-da-di, everybody. It brings all your circles of contacts crashing into each other like a giant cyberpileup. So the atheist uncle is BAM, right there with your conservative Republican relations. Your antiracist friends? BAM! Right there with that guy you knew in the 90s who says "Heil Reagan!" Your kids, right there with the folks you used to hang with in that little bar with the ... well, you get the picture.

So I'm adjusting. It's completely different from blogging. And I've missed being here with you bastards. I feel relieved to be back in my Cowbell world, actually. But FB has it's own place, and ... I guess it's cooler than I thought it would be.

Holy hell, people, I'm a facebooker.

12 comments:

  1. I caved and joined, too, back in December and it definitely affected my desire to blog. Now I've been roped into the Mafia Wars game on Facebook and I'm spending all my time doing that.

    Don't forget to Add me as a FB Friend! :)

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  2. NOOOO.... I am on Facebook but only visit there once in a blue moon...

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  3. I was all into Facebook for about a month. Now I rarely check the account. Mostly because Facebook started sucking my brain out through my ear.

    Anyhoo... I'll look for you on Facebook.

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  4. Ha-ha! Suckers! I'm Facebook free. Now, if I could just quit smoking!

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  5. I searched for "more cowbell" but all I found were people who looked like will ferrell.

    On the plus side, since joining I've regained contact with people I probably would have otherwise never heard from again, some from over 20 years ago...

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  6. I have an account,but I'm almost never there.
    It's under the name Sling,so I don't worry about people finding me.

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  7. Yeah. If I created a Cowbell profile - which, believe me, was my first impulse - then I out my blog to everyone else. Nah...

    It's weird though. I have my privacy settings set pretty high.

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  8. You just have to be...out. As an anti-racist.

    And you can too NOT friend your kids. I wouldn't have minded.

    At least you haven't succumbed to "mafia wars".

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  9. I use my Sageweb name in the facebook and my Mom still found me. Also a ton of of Highschool friends found me through my sister..they recognized my picture of my eyes..strange. Anyways old friends have started calling me Sage..which I find sorta comical. I rarely go on there now that my Mom is my friend. She is a facebook addict. I prefer to twitter..

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  10. I gave in too after needling from a friend and my daughter...but to be honest I don't want to connect with anyone from my past....high school friends, ex's, family. I check it every once in a while, but I still like the journaling i do on blogger....and the feeling of family within my readers.....like you.

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  11. I'm right there with you with the chapped comfort zone sister... but guess it's too late to turn back now!

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  12. Try being a progressive in SW Oklahoma. You're musings about facebook ring true. I consider (almost daily) throwing off those right wingers, but haven't as yet. I'm not about to throw off the related ones but old friends who turned out to be nonthinking commentators might have to go.

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I've got a fever ...