I feel like I've been grounded.
Some people have gotten their accounts back after 4-10 days, and others have fallen prey to the technical bullshit that comes with a site that has 500 million members and their accounts have been lost permanently and people have had to start over.
This is not a big deal for me when it comes to my close friends and family, but all of my comedian friends have gained in popularity and are now big shots with 5000 friends and couldn't accept my request even if they wanted to. I will have to settle for being their "fan".
Oy.
I have been trying to get better at Twitter in the meantime, but I gotta tell ya... it's no Facebook. Not only do I have a very limited network of friends on Twitter (due to my using it mainly to track comedians, writers, unheardof musicians, and artists) but I find it a lot less exciting. It is reads as just a page of words on my Blackberry, as oppposed to the excitement of pictures, videos and personality that was Facebook. Sure, Twitter LINKS to cool shit, but I don't have that kind of time.*
In the meantime, it has freed me to pay a little more attention to my blog that very few people read, and it has reminded me that I do not feel alone or abandoned without Facebook.
That is a relief to me.
Anyone who knows me at all, knows I was really really good at Facebook.
I spent a good deal of time ensuring that people were entertained, educated, and excited when they refreshed their home pages. It is not due to me thinking of myself as a minor celebrity (where would Facebook celebrity fall? Just above porn extra, but below reality star ?) It was because I found Facebook to be used by many people as a source of entertainment for themselves only. They would complain that Facebook was boring or that their friends were boring but they, themselves, would do little to offer others a little nugget to brighten their day. No videos of kitties playing with an ipad, no pictures of the cake they made, no music video they found entertaining, no witty statuses, no LIFE.
They are, not coincidentally, the same people who sit around complaining that they are bored. No, you're not; you are boring. There is a difference.
So I decided I would try and change that. It was a great way of connecting with people far and wide, it kept me searching for awesomeness, and it encouraged me to see the world through the eyes of another's enjoyment of life.
And THAT is what I miss.
I am okay with not knowing what others are up to. I have a large enough social network in reality that I haven't needed to supplement it (replace it?) with a cyber world.
But sometimes I wasn't so sure. (The monster looks back at you, yes?)
Until I lost Facebook, I WAS a bit afraid I would be one of those people who would cry and throw their phone against the wall if Facebook ever shut down or our government took our internets away. I hear people all the time try and convince me that they ENJOY smoking and could quit at any time. I never did believe them.
And here I was, chain-Facebooking. I could have ended up just like them.
Can I get a collective "PHEW"?
So, here is my Twitter link, although I don't recommend it:
http://twitter.com/#!/Arbitral
I will connect with you all soon, and in the meantime:
-Watch 'Away We Go'
-Get the new Radiohead album 'The King of Limbs'
-Listen to the podcast 'WTF with Marc Maron' (if you like comedy and greatness)
and miss me.
Because I miss you.
And I actually mean that in a non co-dependent way, even.
*I totally have that kind of time. I think I'm just not doing it for spite. I have a bit of a hate-on for Twitter and what I think it's doing to people.
