Saving Face(book)

Well, I’m back.

It’s been a while. First, there was Bangladesh (which, if I haven’t told you about it already, then you probably didn’t even know I went). Then there was going back to work, including a couple of days at court. Then I wanted to redesign this place, but that didn’t really happen. And, finally, there was the Affair. There was Facebook.

I resisted for a long time. Really, I did. You don’t know how many e-mails were popping up in my inbox, inviting me to join up so I could see friends in the virtual world who I already see in the real world. But then, dear weblog, I caved. I gave in and signed up, and I got caught up in applications and superlatives and questions and traveller’s IQ (which is oddly addictive, though I keep forgetting where tiny islands are). And I forgot you.

People were asking what happened to us, you know. They said, “Ben, what happened to blogging? Is it over? Have you run off with that hussey Facebook?”

That hussey confuses me somewhat. I really only signed up so I could find some old school friends, but then all these other people started finding me, and suddenly there’s zombies and vampires biting me and people sending me imaginary pot plants. Brother Sam had a talk about this last night, and he says that Facebook is a way of people trying to condense identity out of the vapour of groups and networks on-line. You define yourself on Facebook via membership to cliques (though it is a lot less complicated than I remember it being for real), the applications you install, and (occasionally) the number of friends you have.

I don’t know what I think yet. The allure, for me, is finding all those people I haven’t seen in years – once that novelty runs out, I think I might just get bored with it. But part of me balks at the apparent ease with which some people on Facebook are putting their private lives on a very public forum.

Anyway, what’s past is past. Maybe I will redesign before 2008 rolls around. At any rate, this place is now interfaced with my Facebook page through Flog Blog, so you won’t miss out either way.