Since then I appear to have accumulated a facebook, a twitter (deleted then recreated), two tumblrs, three youtube channels (one of them is inactive as I forgot the password), a formspring, a vimeo, a spillit, a vyou, a skype, various forum usernames, and this pretty little blog you see here (plus one blog that I had in 2008 and subsequently deleted). I deleted the bebo in 2010. I'm also probably forgetting some.
And, with varying degrees of frequency, I use them all. I am a social networking fiend. I have literally never committed to anything like I have committed to the internet. So, what the fuck is wrong with me, and indeed everyone else who overuses social networking?
I think the primary raison d'etre of social networking is abundantly clear: we want to know that we are not alone. There is huge comfort to be found on facebook. I post a status and other people care about my opinions and want to engage with me enough that they like and comment on it. I come across a page with thousands of likes and discover that I'm not crazy, lots of people will look in the fridge repeatedly when hungry expecting to find different food (let's leave aside for a moment that according to Einstein that's exactly what insanity is).
Perhaps I'm just self-obsessed. I post random tidbits from my day and rant about my opinion and answer anonymously submitted questions through various media and I hope that people will read and watch and comment and follow and interact with it because I'M SO FUCKING IMPORTANT AND INTERESTING.
And obviously, there is a bit of self-indulgence here. I probably wouldn't engage in these activities to the extent that I do if I didn't think that someone, somewhere, was picking up what I'm putting down.
But, for me, and I think for most people who engage in social networking (and there are quite a few of them), there's more to it than that. I like interacting with people and self-indulgent as it may be interacting is better than not interacting as far as I'm concerned. The world is changing and the internet is playing a huge part in that and I like seeing what's happening and feeling like I'm a part of that. I like looking at things that my friends, and indeed total strangers, are doing and creating and experiencing and though it seems a bit mundane at times, thats what life is, really; talking to people about their feelings and opinions and activities and how their girlfriend is and that really great pasta they had last week.
If I may indulge my Amanda Palmer obsession in the form of a case study for a moment....
She's a musician who is very active on twitter, maintains a blog, has a youtube account with a couple hundred videos on it and probably some other stuff that I'm not even aware of. For all intents and purposes, she's a celebrity. But instead of trying to distance herself from the hoi poloi she engages with them. She interacts with people on a basic level and tries to share as much of herself as she wants to, and it's created a new kind of celebrity in my opinion; just a cool girl who makes music and travels and shares these experiences with as many people as she can. She's grateful to her fans and I suspect that she's on a secret mission to let each of them know individually that she knows they're there, and appreciates it.
Obviously, not being a celebrity of any kind except for that one photo of me that got quite popular in canada, none of that applies to me. But like it or not the internet is really fucking big news these days and I want to be a part of it. Obviously, there's a line to tread here- no-one wants to hear about the cheese toastie I made this morning and no-one wants to hear about the corrective surgery I had for a rectal prolapse (for the record I have not had a cheese toastie today and have never had corrective surgery for a rectal prolapse). There's sharing, there's undersharing, and there's oversharing. Also, in an effort not to flood everybody with this shit, I segregate my social networking to a certain extent. I doubt whether any single person knows how to find all of the accounts/pages listed above. I'm not really sure I know how to find all of the accounts/pages I've created over the years. That way people see what they want to see, and dont have to engage with me on twenty different platforms. At least that's my intention.
In addition to this, let's face it, I plan on working in media, and social networking is changing the entire industry faster than you can shake your keys at. News is changing, books are changing, music is changing, films are changing, and most of it's going down on the internet. It would be stupid of me not to pay attention to and engage in what's happening in social media.
Now if you'll excuse me I have to take my dailybooth photo and tweet so that people know this blog post exists. Get in touch.
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