Defenders of Facebook? Slaggers of Facebook? Please Respond!

My students and I were discussing the relative merits of Facebook last night in class. We're reading Fahrenheit 451, and examining the vision of how technology interferes with society that Bradbury put forth in that novel, specifically how technology aids and abets in the comprehensive distration of the society from the war and other social ills, and how technology disconnects us not only from the larger world but from each other.

Many of my students are parents of teenagers, and some of those view FB as the equivalent of talking on the phone for hours like they did as teens. Others see a real reduction in the level of in-depth or quality communication skills possessed by their teens, who have been trained to interact in fragmented spurts, using few or non-words and looking at no one.

So, does FB increase communication skills by sheer volume, or reduce communication skills by lowering the bar of interaction to the lowest level possible? Does FB make our worlds more complete and integrated by keeping us connected to friends and loved ones, or does it give a false sense of connectedness enabled by technology? Does FB lead to more face time with those we care about, or is it an insidious replacement for person to person shared experience and conversation?

Bloggers Rest Easy: Facebook is Empty

After about the millionth person prodding me to join...you know, the "book" that isn't one, I cyberstrolled through it t'other day, and found, yes, nothing.

Facebook is essentially a group of people you know well, a little or not at all, saying these riveting and edifying words: "What's Uuuup?"

It's nothingland. Done well, it's nothinglandia.

The precursor to this phenomenon was of course the blogosphere, wherein some bloggers stripped off the tatters of their remaining privacy and bared all to the cybermasses. All they bared was most often excruciatingly boring, but we're not ashamed to bore strangers.

With Facebook, we're boring our friends and family. And our "friends". There is if possible even less real content on Facebook than on the most TMI blogs, because the tools for posting are all designed down to a sentence or two.

Whenever my daughter is on the phone, and she's asked by the caller "what are you doing?" she answers, matter of factly, "I'm talking on the phone."

This brilliant response is the source of the FBer's confusion. When Facebook asks you what you're doing, the only answer is, "I'm on Facebook", which is to say, "I'm wasting time on the computer, gathering useless factlets about people I know and don't know and my relatives, instead of talking to them or seeing them in person. Instead of having real experiences or interactions. I'm "relationshipping" with my "friends" who have "friended" me."

(Shudder.)

It's all too Farhenheit 451 for comfort. That book was positively Oracle at Delphi accurate, my friends. Right down to the seashell earpods (see:ipods), right down to the replacement of real family and friends with their projected facsimiles on screens that surround us.

If you need me, I'll be camped down by the river with the other professors, books stuffed into my coat and into my mind, hiding from the vicious cyberdog that hunts us.

award winning poetry found here?

Dear Largely Silent and Possibly Non-existent Audience:

My poem has been nominated by the Rose and Thorn magazine for a Best of The Web award! Dang. If chosen, the poem would appear in the Best of The Web anthology put out by Sundress Press found at http://sundress.net/. They have also invited me to record a podcast of the poem, "Letter to Steven, from a Blizzard" for their poetry podcast archives.

This is the link to the poem in question, which has appeared in this space before, under the post name Cool Breeze.

http://www.theroseandthornezine.com/Summer07/Blizzard.html

Just thought I'd whisper this good news into the quiet night.

kg

Stuart Appears in Frame Lines Edition #5

Beloved story Stuart appears in Frame Lines! Check it out. You need to download the magazine to read the whole story.

www.framelines.org

Cool Other Thing

Here's a cool other thing I'm doing!

iammountain.blogspot.com

Quotable Quotes on "Stuart"

My friend and colleague James Tipton, author of the best-selling historical fiction novel "Annette Vallon", subtitled "a novel of the French Revolution", is set to read "Stuart" and hopefully A: like it and B: laud it, in writing. The idea here is to get quotes from notable authors to plaster all over a cover letter to an agent. This feels like progress!

We've Set the Date

August 1st is it! "Stuart" will appear in Frame Lines magazine's issue #5. You can see it then at www.framelines.org. Stay tuned for more news on failing at rejection, or successes in that endeavor.