Goobi's Soggy Shit

On one hand, they’re a beautiful medium, of instant communication, keeping up with old friends, and passing along free advice. Facebook, Twitter, and the good ol’ blog are three little social things I currently work with on the internet, and with increasing frequency I find them meddling with the usual flow of life that I expect to live.

Twitter

Let’s take twitter to start with, since it’s the social network I’m most involved in. I started using twitter in Jan ’08. We started Smoking Apples in Aug ’08. But the minute I tweet something a Mac developer or internet celebrity does not like, the whole blame goes to SA and I get a powerful shout from Avner or Preshit about behaving myself on the web. Okay it’s not as much a shouting as an ironical musing, but I know what they’re trying to communicate.

Take for instance this tweet, which was totally in zest. It was definitely a stupid tweet in hindsight, but it’s my twitter feed and I can say whatever I want to. I didn’t mean any malice; in fact I’ve followed MinimalMac since the day it started.

Here’s hoping [MinimalMac] @patrickrhone’s Mac freezes at the boot screen. That’s minimalism right there.

Here’s one of the responses that Rhone got from one of his followers:

@patrickrhone well, that is one of MANY MANY MANY reasons (see twitter stream of @goobimama for more) to stop subscribing to @SmokingApples.

I explained the matter to Rhone who was most understanding. Still, the damage is done. I would have been totally fine with being called an idiot or douchebag (I have been on more than one occasion) but such strong association with something I’m merely a partner at is not something I appreciate¹. I remember when I first described Twitter on sh.it, I mentioned how I emailed a developer professionally, while a few seconds later talked beer with him on twitter. Twitter is personal. Professionalism is what email is for. To curb spontaneity with PR-speak is reducing Twitter to a a structured organisation, totally deviating from the free-form thought sharing.

The blog

Every time my favourite cousin Anoushka visits from Canada, I have nothing new to tell her. “I read it on your blog”. This doesn’t just happen in case of my cousin. There’s a whole lot of people who visit this piece of internet real estate to follow in the life of Milind Alvares, apparently. Whatever happened to meeting up after several years, finding out what’s changed, sharing pictographs over time, and being surprised about a change in appearance. “My god you’ve grown tall and handsome” has now become “Hey. So what’s new?”.

Facebook

Don’t even get me started on this. First of all it’s a bad social network, and second, it’s a bad social network. It hasn’t fucked with me like the other two, but it’s the one thing I dread managing. You know that food joint or club you have to visit every so often only because all your friends hang out there? Facebook is like that.This image accurately describes what I see every day when I visit facebook.

The problem of facebook however is even bigger than just the annoying ’cause invitations’. I realised the mess only when I saw it from a grown up’s perspective. As I was explaining twitter and its merits to a middle aged woman, she mentioned her experience with facebook. “All of a sudden I was ‘connected’ with my classmates from 25 years ago, which I had otherwise forgotten about”. It didn’t occur to me because all of my college friends are still fresh in my mind. So all those ‘friends’ whom I’m otherwise supposed to forget as I wade through life, are clinging on to a steady stream of updates from me. Kind of brings us back to the “What’s new?” syndrome doesn’t it?

Here’s my plan of action.

Twitter. I’m leaning heavily to starting a new twitter account under the name “langur” , “Pataka_puri” or something along those lines, with a different house address and might even substitute a dog for a cat. You know, fake identity. I don’t see how else I can say things freely without having a bunch of word-pussies harassing me from behind. For now I’ve removed any association between my account and SA, and will keep my tweet content as SA-free as possible. Hopefully that will keep the attacks on me and only me.

Blog. I only write about vague stuff. Some personal incidents, but mostly thoughts floating around in my head. I definitely won’t be hosting pictures of my new bike, or how long my toenails have grown. Call it the end of the soggy blog, and the beginning of a boring lecture in philosophy. I’ll try to keep it interesting.

Facebook. I’m going on a deleting spree. All those who don’t need to know, don’t need to know. It’s nothing personal. It’s not like I don’t like my ‘friends’ on facebook, it’s just that I don’t want them knowing details of my daily life. I want to live my life the way it was meant to be lived. Fifteen years down the line, I want to see someone on the streets and for a few minutes not be sure whether or not it is my best friend from college.

Tumblr. Some of you might not be knowing, but I’ve started posting to Tumblr, which is a great service for blogging. It’s definitely the next step in personal and community blogging, and I’d highly suggest you give it a try. I’m at goobimama.tumblr.com.

Hopefully that will keep the everything under control and the mind at rest. What I’d really like to hear though is a agreeing or conflicting opinion.

1. I understand that a person’s views in public are naturally associated with their product or brand, just as Steve Jobs’ statement would affect Apple. But twitter is personal, way more than any other ‘public statement’ has ever been. I guess that’s why Steve Jobs doesn’t have a twitter feed.