"There's a complete lack of the inner critic, a complete lack of editing. Everything is out there all the time. There's no mystery. I don't think I want the world to know my innermost thoughts."
-Vicki Peterson of the Bangles, talking about social media during a recent interview
Yup, I was a Bangles fan back in the 80's. I even performed a slightly offkey remake of "Walk Like An Egyptian" in one of the first record your own record booths at some amusement park. To give you an idea of how long ago, I brought home the recording on a cassette tape.
Vicki makes a point I've been pondering a lot lately, professionally and personally. What about all this social media? What about this way people are communicating with one another daily in cyberspace?
The online world has exploded onto the scene in a very short time. Here's an example. When I marched to officially receive my M.F.A. degree just one year ago I shared the news via an email to my friends and colleagues. I wrote a few posts about it on this blog and even scanned some old college graduation pictures and posted for fun. Simple, to the point, here's what's happening in my life.
This year I followed preparations, cap and gown pickups, photos, and fun stories with the next class via their Facebook postings. I knew moment to moment if they were in their cars en route to campus, when they were leaving their homes for the ceremony, or when they were sitting at their desks, blank word document in front of them, thinking now what?
Technology has given us an important tool to link together in a global world. Reconnecting with people can be fun, networking online can be productive, and the web certainly gives us writers a way to get our words read (or at least more control over the process.)
But it's the self-editing part of Peterson's remarks I hone in on and the observation that everything is out there all the time. I notice so many people spending time on Facebook, taking quizzes that tell them more about themselves than a Meyers-Briggs test. However, more often I see that one person has taken several or more in a row. I know where they want to vacation, what they like to eat, who they want to be like, what body part is their least favorite...and the list goes on.
What I pay attention to most with social media is that the quantity of information exchanged often remains out of any personal context. While it is fun and can be a valuable tool, it can also become a crutch, a way for people to stay hidden behind a computer screen and forget that sometimes it's okay to pick up a telephone or say hello to a friend. That sometimes it's good to pick up valuable customer input from the web but it's still a good idea to shop in a store and interact with people as they purchase your products. That whether or not other people care, maybe it's okay to keep it quiet as to whether you are more like Kermit or Miss Piggy or Elmo.
Like anything, social media in moderation can be a very good thing. But when people start to tap out their lives on a keyboard instead of living them, that could be a sign of disaster looming.
