Update: This entry is from my column that originally appeared in the Northern Colorado entertainment magazine The Scene. While I'm not doing this column anymore, I'm still as involved as I can be in the Fort Collins area music scene in general.
This edition’s topic: Uncle Johnny: MyBook SpaceFace!
Welcome to the world of “web thingies,” as my friend Brian calls them. Brian
is a respected music business attorney in Los Angeles who, like many of us,
feels a bit conflicted about the relatively new, blurred paradigm of web
communication, networking and f____g off.
As I sit here feeling guilty about neglecting my MySpace “friends” and
spending far too much time perusing mildly amusing but basically useless stuff
on FaceBook, I hope to steal a moment to weigh the worth myself. Where have all
my moments gone? While I admit to enjoying what I see as the positive aspects of
the web thingies (reconnecting with old friends like Brian, advertising my
band’s gigs), I don’t even want to think about what a time sucking vortex these
technologies are.
For those of us fortunate enough to have a spare moment in these challenging
times of economic catastrophe, the “thingies” pull us in and take those moments
away. So that we can do what, share pertinent information such as our 25
favorite albums of all time, I guess.
How ever did we survive without these wonderful new communications miracles?
Powerful indeed, they have even managed to create a new elitist lingo. “Oh..are
you still using MySpace? How quaint! The rest of us were using Twitter but have
since moved on to Splitter or perhaps Shitter!” Where does it end? Does it end?
Will we all be sharing the apocalypse experience in darkly humorous, rapid-fire
anecdotes as Rome burns?
Maybe I, modern guitar-Nero, will be sitting on my roof with a Les Paul and
miniature amplifier, maniacally typing to you all between riffs until the
wireless server shuts down for the last time.
Wait!...what am I doing writing this inane article? I have to check in on my
“friends!”
Thanks to SpaceFace, I’ve now witnessed the end of more than one
relationship, the details of which were sadly displayed across the screen for
many “friends” to see. It is odd enough knowing these details about “friends.”
It is even sadder reading these public proclamations about real, long-term
friends and their personal pitfalls.
How will I respond? Privately or publicly? How will I keep track? Hmm...Note
to self: Create new folders for friends vs. “friends.” Then I can get back to
those bothersome secondary tasks such as eating, sleeping, working and caring
for family. With any luck, my life will be made even easier when next year’s
thingy automatically scrolls right across the inside lenses of my glasses so I
can see what everyone’s favorite movies are as I get dressed and make breakfast!
That will give me back so much of the time I’m now losing. I can’t wait!
Uncle Johnny, over and out
