SOCIAL NETWORK

At one time, I loathed visiting my MySpace and Facebook accounts. I kept them around primarily as vehicles to direct people back to this very blog. (Look at me! I need attention! Waaah!) But, I have recently discovered that they are good for my health, good for my soul, and good for my ego.

(I don't check my MySpace account much anymore. Twitter drives me crazy with its barrage of information. Facebook, is a nice balance of craziness, and where I find myself a few times per day.)

On Facebook, I am connected to family and friends—a slim few known in a Biblical sense, more due to the blood we share, and more still due to interests we have in common. I am connected to people I went to high school with, people I went to elementary school with, and a few that I attended public school with from kindergarten through my senior year. I am connected to writers of all stripes—those in my writing group, those who I rub elbows with at readings and literary events, those who I know only through a network of connections of writer to writer to writer. I am connected to my fellow connoisseurs of craft beer and to other disc golf aficionados. I am connected to members of the Jaycees, to members of my church, to members of my chosen city of residence. Many of these people fall into multiple categories.

These people, for better or for worse, have become a fabric of voices and ideas that are ever present. A few of my favorites are those who have really embraced this new medium and made it their own. Their voices sing the loudest, in good ways.

A few of my favorites are:

T., who is the Hunter S. Thompson of my friends list. He posts links, photos, and status updates that are an insane examination of our current culture. His page and FB persona are a mix of yellow and gonzo journalism that is uniquely his own, warts and all.

K. posts her "Daily Dose of the '80s," where I have found a curator of songs that I didn't know that I needed to listen to at work. Except that now I realize that I do and have needed to listen to them, so I do.

D. is a writer who I have never met in person. I know her through friends on FB that also happen to be her friends. She writes about robots. She runs an online website/journal/social network/"third place" of poetry. She leads writing workshops with elementary school kids that also involves hermit crabs and how we relate to the world we find ourselves.

A. is someone that I have known since kindergarten. We spent the night at each other's homes. We ran around in the woods together. We played the same instrument in junior high and high school, even if in separate bands (mostly because I was late to the whole idea of playing an instrument). FB has been a way to connect after an absence from one another from high school forward, with us occasionally meeting by happenstance here and there. I am glad to have rediscovered him and his fertile mind.

I have also rediscovered myself. I don't have "to be on" all of the time here. I enjoy a modicum of control, while also allowing for some risk. It is a place that I can speak, if I so choose, although I find that I more enjoy listening to the words of others in this world that they and I have carved out of bits and bytes of nothing.