The backlash against the Facebook “change your profile picture to a cartoon character to promote awareness of violence against children” was so predictable I could almost have dictated it word for word when I first was urged online to seek out a picture of Daffy Duck. I knew very well that posting a picture of the famed utterer of “that’s despicable” would do nothing in the real world to alter the plight of children who are suffering, yet – I bit. A friend – both FB and real world – whom I respect even pointed out online that this was too fun to pass up, and I couldn’t argue with that. So I joined the myriad of people on Google searching for pictures of their long lost cartoon friends, found one, and posted it.
Not three days later, this same friend posted a new blog entry about how shallow and meaningless it was for all of us to do this, how it didn’t really change anything, but maybe it did raise a little consciousness, but omigosh are we just a bunch of useless cogs being led by the nose through meaningless socially conscious cyber drivel. Even though I knew well before Daffy’s grumpy face adorned my FB profile that I would eventually get slapped for participating, I was a little stung that the very person whose counsel had convinced me to play was the one piping up to tell me how pointless my online exercise was. As if I didn’t know.
Whatever. But it does add fodder to my thinking about Facebook. I like Facebook. A lot. But long ago I made some personal rules about posting a status: they must never mention food, and they must never include a complaint. I decided that I would try mainly to post things that would make people laugh.
The exception is self-promotion, of course. I am doing tons of interesting things — tons! — and some of them require donations and admission charges. So I, like so many on Facebook, shamelessly used it as a placard for my personal self interest, either direct (“come to my concert”) or indirect (“visit this online auction benefitting my children’s school”). I try to keep this to a minimum, but it's hard.
That said, I think Facebook is at its best when it is used for connecting with people you probably wouldn’t otherwise, like my bucketloads of cousins, aunts and uncles in Alabama whom I, as a Californian, have not otherwise connected with beyond a Christmas card in 20 years.
And seeing what cartoon character my friends post is interesting, because the point of social media is to tell the world a little about yourself, and this was a harmless, fun, and warm way to do that.
Whatever. But it does add fodder to my thinking about Facebook. I like Facebook. A lot. But long ago I made some personal rules about posting a status: they must never mention food, and they must never include a complaint. I decided that I would try mainly to post things that would make people laugh.
The exception is self-promotion, of course. I am doing tons of interesting things — tons! — and some of them require donations and admission charges. So I, like so many on Facebook, shamelessly used it as a placard for my personal self interest, either direct (“come to my concert”) or indirect (“visit this online auction benefitting my children’s school”). I try to keep this to a minimum, but it's hard.
That said, I think Facebook is at its best when it is used for connecting with people you probably wouldn’t otherwise, like my bucketloads of cousins, aunts and uncles in Alabama whom I, as a Californian, have not otherwise connected with beyond a Christmas card in 20 years.
And seeing what cartoon character my friends post is interesting, because the point of social media is to tell the world a little about yourself, and this was a harmless, fun, and warm way to do that.
