this is just because i miss ljing, not because this is actual content

Facebook is one of those places I always feel half-convinced of the legitimacy of online split personality; it could feel less like me, but I don't know how. Even my status updates feel weird and wrong, like someone else entirely is typing them. It's not me online, it's not me in RL, which are actually in a lot of ways basically the same thing, just without the need to spellcheck; I feel like I'm constructing someone new out of pieces of the things I am and the things I'm okay with people knowing about me, and the things I'm mostly not but have to be anyway.

This person is both boring and irritating; seriously, not good. Also, people keep finding me and come the fuck on. It's been fifteen years. How do you even remember my name?

Also, I have Iyaz's Replay stuck in my head. I love this song. But this? This is how I learn to loathe music. Right here.

(HE COOKS THINGS FOR HER AND WRITES SYMPHONIES. OVER AND OVER. IN MY HEAD.)

There we go--Jason Derulo. Better.

(I've also rediscovered twitter? This can't be good.)

Comments

[winterlive.livejournal.com]

where are you? why aren't you online? i need to talk to you about Very Important Things.

[seperis.livejournal.com]

What sorts of VITs?

[winterlive.livejournal.com]

the kind of very important things that will give you a new OTP.

[averzierlia.livejournal.com]

No fair, I can't find you on facebook! *goes off to emo in a corner*

>.> I am avoiding Twitter religiously. I have Too Many Addictions as it is.

[gen241.livejournal.com]

Facebook often feels like a PR campaign.

It can be difficult to update with things that don't actually reveal anything personal but he worst part is when other people don't know what *should* be personal and you find yourself suddenly very exposed to friends/family/people you barely know.

I agree with you re: the legitimacy of online split personality - anonymity allows you to be yourself a lot more than something like Facebook (which is maybe the opposite).

[shinetheway.livejournal.com]

This pretty much sums up my issues with facebook. I feel more like myself going by my fake name online than I do going by my real name.

[damietta.livejournal.com]

For someone who can get "lost" watching The Weather Channel for 45 minutes, I just couldn't cope with Facebook or Twitter. I enjoy the pace of LJ: sometimes it is rapid with funny little things, other times thoughtful.

Besides, I have too many former boyfriends that I just as soon not "find" me. LOL!

[archaeologist-d.livejournal.com]

I avoid facebook if I can. Plus I found out things about my friends that I really didn't want to know. And how much Farmville can you take anyway?

[seperis.livejournal.com]

That's the eternal burning question right htere.

[beadattitude.livejournal.com]

I think I know what you mean; Facebook is the public relations version of me. Sansitized for your protection.

[seperis.livejournal.com]

Yes, this! SANITIZED. Just--yes, it's like running me through a blender and two publicists. Not fun.

[vito-excalibur.livejournal.com]

Yes!

And when I am not corporate enough, sometimes people actually tell me about it. O.o "You're so snarky", or such.

[scribblemoose]

I feel like I'm constructing someone new out of pieces of the things I am and the things I'm okay with people knowing about me, and the things I'm mostly not but have to be anyway.

That's exactly how I feel on FB too. I find it so much easier to be myself on LJ - so much of what I can say here is more 'me' than I really share at work or with any but close offline friends.

Although it's amused to see that the wife of my ex-boyfriend of thirty years ago is *still* jealous of me. *g*

[seperis.livejournal.com]

...seriously? *boggles* Okay, that's kind of awesome.

[wynddancer.livejournal.com]

is *amused*. I know exactly what you mean. I have a FB account but I can't hardly bring myself to log in to it--I feel too exposed and I don't want to "tarnish" my name to these people I hardly know....I mean *seriously* who are these people friending me?!?!? Except for a couple I have no idea........how do they even remember me if I don't remember them???.....I only remember one Tracy and not 3........I seriously need to drag out my high school album........

[fyrdrakken]

Oddly enough, studies of Facebook are showing that supposedly it does actually give a really accurate impression of a user's personality, so I think your problem is actually that it's forcing you to uncomfortably straddle the divide between what you're comfortable with people knowing about you IRL and what you're comfortable with sharing with fan friends online. Facebook is pretty much for people who don't have any kind of a "secret" life online. (Which is why I continue to refuse to get an account, despite learning over Thanksgiving that I have multiple family members on there now.)

ETA: Oh, and I'm FyrDrakken on Twitter.

[seperis.livejournal.com]

Anyone I have friended on Facebook also is friended here, so that part isn't a problem. I just don't feel the same comfort or confidence in non-fen people who aren't in that group, so my filter is really problematic. I don't mind fandom friends knowing anything, but non-fen haven't reached that level of trust or for that matter, enough of my interest for me to want to share more.

There's also--fandom and friends here shaped not just my personality but my language and my references and my shortcuts. So having to translate backward to speak online as I'd speak at work or something is really questionable at the best of times and I'm most comfortable in a textual medium. So--it's irritating. It may be me in some respects, but it's like isolating only one part of my personality.

[fyrdrakken]

I did very little LJing over my holiday break and all my comment replies have been languishing in my inbox, so I can't quite remember the point I wanted to make in response a week ago, but as best I can recall it was something faux-profound about Facebook being social networking for people who still need training wheels on the internet. And it's very uncomfortable for those of us at the advanced stages of online interaction to suddenly be stumbling over all these people who still think that for an online relationship to have any validity at all it has to be with someone you already have some RL history or connection with, no matter how peripheral or long-ago.