When I cold turkeyed myself from Facebook (FB) two weeks ago, little aware would I be of the hue and cry that would ensue (although the hue was a somewhat transparent tone and the cry was little more than a moist incipient sobbing. Truth be told I am still of two irreconcilable minds; an unfortunate fence straddling which recalls the 60’s aphorism that one can’t be two places at once when one is really nowhere at all.
The issue is as old as human existence, and there would appear to be two strivings in play. Our need for collective belonging and acceptance is a primordial fire which warms our hearts and gives values to our need for community. I genuinely enjoyed the company of everyone with whom I crossed paths on FB. But the spectre of perceived uniqueness reared its pretty and alluring head. We also seem to have the need to be identified as someone with a certain set of skills and predispositions which also need recognition. Life has been an experience lived in a concert hall, wherein I have only two places to sit; either centre stage or way at the back by the fire exit and washroom with the disinfectant hanging in my nostrils. Half of me says to bludgeon everyone within hearing distance with bon mots and ‘cleverisms’, while the remaining half says ‘shut up and sit down – you’ve had your say’.
FB is a sniper’s paradise. A clear view from whatever camouflage one might assemble. . . easy to say the say and beat a hasty retreat; but it often does not encourage the sort of response hoped for (shooting at one another rarely invites others to join a ‘dialogue’). And for all the immediacy of the FB architecture, it cannot overcome human habits. An idea that might be timely and of the moment will quickly lose steam when many of us check in once a week. The string is quickly extended and stretches until the logic of the argument nears a tensile crisis point of credibility.
FB wasn’t working for me. I felt I needed to make a greater personal effort to reach out and touch (bludgeon?) others. This blog looks like it might fit the bill, and I hope to hear back from as many of you as feel so inclined. FB is fine, but I think that true community is built upon a foundation of effort and not convenience.