Crossing the Line - Redux

Reblogging a post I wrote in 2008:

Yesterday someone I knew roughly fifteen years ago wrote to me via Facebook. She asked me if I were dying because she had noticed my status updates on Facebook (and quite possibly this blog) and was, I quote, sooo worried about me!!!!!!!!!

One thing which absolutely fascinates me about blogging and, by extension, social networking on the web, is the idea that you "know" the blogger or the person you follow on a social website. Where does that idea of "knowledge" comes from?

I don't know about you, but I moderate my online persona and I have done so ever since I first started blogging almost eight years ago. I used to be almost obsessively private about my identity, but when one of my blog readers began stalking me obsessively in my then-hometown, I realised that anybody would be able to find out who I was no matter how hard I tried to mask my identity. It was just a matter of how net-savvy you were. These days I link my real name to this blog and use a somewhat transparent web 'handle'. I continue to be very aware what I share online.

Do you know me if you read this blog? Of course not, although you will have a good idea of what to expect if we were to have a conversation offline. Can you deduce anything significant from my Facebook-updates? Quite apart from my having a semi-severe PathWords obsession, no.

I'm slightly amazed that anybody would consider asking me about dying via a casual Facebook message or think I would disclose terminal illness via one-sentence updates on a silly social networking site. I think this proves the divide between illusory 'knowledge' generated by virtual interaction and actual knowledge of the person writing all of this.

And two years later I'm reblogging this because I'm yet again baffled by how tactless, intrusive and self-obsessed people can be.

And how some people never learn.

The Song is Who?

"Based on the books in your collection," the Facebook notification read, " we thought you might like the New York Times best-selling author, Arthur Phillips', new book The Song is You." A quick google-search came up with a book which the New York Times described as "[reading] like a maladroit mash-up of the romantic comedy “Sleepless in Seattle” (..)  and one of those creepy, straight-to-video movies, in which a famous beauty is pursued around the world by an obsessive fan." and which its publisher is trying to promote using the tag-line "Julian Donahue is in love with his iPod."

Some days I wish I were still running my literary blog, so I wouldn't be so out of the loop. Has Facebook moved into target-marketing literary geeks - or am I just super-priviledged? Is Arthur Phillips Spring '09's Jonathan Safran Foer or just a random no-name author whose publisher has paid hefty sums to social networks in a desperate attempt to shift copies? Should I even care enough to blog about this?

Regardless, I am not the reader you are looking for, dear Facebook notification. The book in question sounds absolutely vile and quite unlike anything I'd even consider reading.

In unrelated news, I have contracted the girly version of manflu which means I'm on the verge of dying. In lieu of flowers, please send skeins of Malabrigo or Noro Cashmere Island .. *cough, splutter, cough*

You And Whose Army?

Yesterday I kicked someone off my Facebook friends list. I came home, checked FB quickly and noticed someone from my primary school days had joined a Danish-language group called "I'm not racist but be nice OR get out of my country". My stomach tensed as I checked the group description with its ten so-called commandments (including "Accept people can eat pork and not be disgusting" and "Pay your taxes - even if you own a cornershop or a takeaway"). The Danish flag featured heavily, of course.

So I sat there just before bedtime and I was .. not shocked nor surprised..  but, I guess, saddened that someone I once knew would think it a great idea to join such a group. And then I realised that I have no time whatsoever for this sort of sh*t, kicked my erstwhile classmate off my friends list and headed off to bed feeling slightly shell-shocked.

I feel I should be doing something more than just block someone on a silly social networking site (and reporting the group to the FB admins as violating their TOS. I do not think they'll care much), but what?

Twenty-Five

20. I'm allergic to pistachio nuts if I eat more than a pound in less than 30 minutes.

That fact and twenty-four other exciting and essential factoids about your bloggerista (i.e. me) can be found here. I was tagged to do it on a certain social networking site and thought I'd share the pain.

Crossing The Line

Yesterday someone I knew roughly fifteen years ago wrote to me via Facebook. She asked me if I were dying because she had noticed my status updates on Facebook (and quite possibly this blog) and was, I quote, sooo worried about me!!!!!!!!! One thing which absolutely fascinates me about blogging and, by extension, social networking on the web, is the idea that you "know" the blogger or the person you follow on a social website. Where does that idea of "knowledge" comes from?

I don't know about you, but I moderate my online persona and I have done so ever since I first started blogging almost eight years ago. I used to be almost obsessively private about my identity, but when one of my blog readers began stalking me obsessively in my then-hometown, I realised that anybody would be able to find out who I was no matter how hard I tried to mask my identity. It was just a matter of how net-savvy you were. These days I link my real name to this blog and use a somewhat transparent web 'handle'. I continue to be very aware what I share online.

Do you know me if you read this blog? Of course not, although you will have a good idea of what to expect if we were to have a conversation offline. Can you deduce anything significant from my Facebook-updates? Quite apart from my having a semi-severe PathWords obsession, no.

I'm slightly amazed that anybody would consider asking me about dying via a casual Facebook message or think I would disclose terminal illness via one-sentence updates on a silly social networking site. I think this proves the divide between illusory 'knowledge' generated by virtual interaction and actual knowledge of the person writing all of this.

Re-Arranging Letters

Facebook has been asked to remove the Scrabulous application as it infringes upon Scrabble's copyright. Scrabulous is one of the two reasons why I have not grown entirely tired of Facebook yet (the other being Staries where I'm trying to get above 19000 points because I'm a sad individual). I might reconsider my Facebook profile if Scrabulous is pulled - although there is something to be said about reconnecting with people you haven't seen in fifteen years (what that 'something' is I will leave for you, dear reader, to decide).

On a much brighter note, this book just arrived in the post and seeing as I finished Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell last night, that is damn good timing. Thoughts on Strange & Norrell will be posted once I have finished processing it in my head.

Finally, the book widget question. Now Reading appears to be quite useful as a tracking tool rather than as a library tool. By that I mean that it enables me to track what I am reading (thus making the Books 2008 page rather obsolete) but it cannot keep track of my book collection. I'll keep it for now but any book widget suggestions are still warmly welcomed.

Edit: more on Facebook, Scrabulous and infringing copyrights