I have a bit of a
love / hate relationship with Facebook: I love to hate it.
Despite writing a
daily blog and tweeting incessantly, it might surprise people to learn that I’m
actually very private. I’ll use social media as an excuse to work up ideas and
force a little creativity – but when it comes to Facebook, I’ll keep myself to
myself.
I joined it
reluctantly, on the eve of mine and Glyn’s first Edinburgh Festival. Doggett & Ephgrave had been ‘trading’ for a couple of years with us making
little money from it (some things never change). All of a sudden we needed to
find somewhere in the region of £8,000 - £10,000 to fund our trip to Scotland; a number of fund-raising events were hastily organized, and
Facebook seemed the best (and cheapest) way to promote them.
I sometimes worry
that the way I use Facebook gets on people’s nerves; you may not want to be
constantly confronted by things I find amusing, or information about our latest
gigs. I guess there’s no point in losing too much sleep about it: Facebook is
frivolous by its very nature and shouldn’t be taken too seriously. If someone
doesn’t want to read my jokes they can always filter me out (something considerably harder to do in person).
Facebook is
supposed to enable friends to stay connected, but if anything, it encourages
the opposite. It becomes voyeuristic: we watch each other’s lives from
a distance and seldom interact. When we do, our dialogue is carefully
considered: we draft and redraft our thoughts, presenting them in a way that’s esthetically
pleasing - and sometimes far from the truth.
We choose
photographs that show us at our best and write statuses that portray us at our
most well-adjusted; we may as well publish a daily press release with all the bad
bits airbrushed out.
On the flipside,
a fleeting bad mood can provoke a status which – depending on how carefully you
filter your friends list – can be read by the sort of work colleagues or
passing acquaintances to which such an outburst would never be appropriate in
everyday life.
I suppose the
trick with Facebook is not to overuse it – and when you do use it, to use it for the best. While it can be a convenient way to stay in contact, it should never become a replacement for seeing those you care about in person. A
couple of my closest friends aren't on Facebook; consequently we make
more of an effort to stay in touch - and our relationship is probably
the better for it.
Let's face it: life's too short to spend the best part of it staring at a computer screen.