Wednesday, February 4, 2009

My life has been taken over by facebook!

I write this entry into my blog for a couple of reasons. 1) now that I linked the RSS feed to my facebook profile, I am going to see if this indeed automatically updates when I post this entry: and 2) to appeal to anyone out there to learn if there is indeed a 12 step type program for those who have adopted facebook.

It all started innocent enough. I had heard of facebook and myspace, and figured they were solely the domain of the young and wired. For those of us who remember when a computer was actually used to compute things, we enjoyed the convenience of e-mail, the joy of digital photography and a few other perks, but this machine was primarily used to manage business contacts, cook the books for the business, and that sort of thing. Not the "ubber connected" generation that seems to have been born with a PDA implanted in their left palm.

A barbershop buddy of mine, Dan Jordan, Lead Extrordinairre of The Perfect Gentlemen, Hi-Fidelity and countless prior quartets, sent me a note inviting me to join facebook and become a "friend". Okay, says I, what's the harm? That led to invites from all over the Far Western District of Barbershopping; now there was a curious and interesting way to keep a little closer contact with some of these guys I only get to see a few times per year.

About the same time, those who created and run the Yahoo Group for my high school reunion wanted to move the group to facebook. Well, I was getting used to the application, so I said I would help out and be a "co-administrator".

I have witnessed facebook grow like a cancer throughout barbershop harmony singers. Invites sent to me, I send to others, I find myself joining fan groups of all sorts of quartets, discussion groups of different aspects of barbershopping, and instant messaging with guys all over barbershop land. I am learning more tidbits of some of these folks than I ever had hoped to know!

Now the high school reunion thing has exploded as well. Not only my class but a general group of all who graduated from good old Piedmont High School in Piedmont, California. Sub groups like one honoring the recent passing of a legendary music instructor or a roundup of who shopped at the local drug store in Piedmont. And now instant messaging with people I haven't known in thirty years!

This has all the characteristics of the proverbial double edged sword. While this explosion of new information is amazing, it is also time consuming. I want to reaquaint with old friends... or folks who were merely periferal characters to my own rites of passage.... but it is a major time bandit!

Someone commented on a picture I posted, so I must answer that. Or I tagged someone else's picture. And it must have a response. Someone made a pithy or salient argument, and one worthy of a little verbal parrying. Or out of the blue, here comes someone for whom I hadn't thought of in these thirty some-odd years, excitedly telling me he just mentioned me to someone last month. (I can think of few higher honors!)

So my screen time has gone up of late. Not only doing billings, sending business correspondence, and the other fun stuff on the computer, but a whole new aspect that was not in my life just two months ago. It can be overwhelming at times.

Don't get me wrong. Not complaining, but trying to be philosphical with my own self. I can manage this thing.... I think. I guess I just have to remind myself of one a minor but memorable James Bond quote from Goldfinger. "Discipline 007, discipline"

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Nice post. My sentiments exactly... it's nice to know that there are others (albeit right-wing conservative thinkers) who share my feelings about the cyber-age of computing (can we still call it that?).

The TechSmiths said...

Hi Derick,
You left a comment on my blog regarding my source for the LibriVox recording of "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn." Nearly everything I read for LibriVox is from The Gutenberg Project: www.gutenberg.org . I used Gutenberg for Huck Finn.
Regards,
Mark

Emmett McAuliffe said...

Hey Derrick. Nice post! btw, Where is the Rubinoos chat goin on these days? Yahoo seems dead.