Edification – Newsletter #90 – October 3, 2021
Dear Reader,
Happy Sunday!
What in the world is going on on Facebook, you all? I feel like I’ve unsubscribed from email notifications from that platform a dozen times, and still I get reminders to make me feel guilty and weird every single day. Every day!
So I log in, recognize few people but performatively like their milestones and anniversary photos and pets. I rage at the shady engagement-bait questions, into which I see all these decent people throwing their personal information out of boredom. Then I comment “happy birthday,” “congratulations,” and “I’m so sorry to hear that” all down the feed. And I log out.
But why?
Why is Facebook like this? Or why am I like this, conforming to the peculiar social conventions of Facebook?
I realize these things happen on other social media platforms, but the ritualization of “greeting life” feels very Facebook-specific. Perhaps it has to do with an aging demographic, or the comparatively broad-based pluralism of Facebook (according to Pew Research Center, as of summer 2021, around 70 percent of Americans have an account).
I do feel bad for people with bad news, happy for people with happy news, even if they’re strangers. Is this the secret to Facebook’s zombie-like immortality? It just exploits the kindness of strangers? And if that’s the case, why does it feel like such a particularly cold and aggressive place? Why are there so many sketchy “what’s your birthday” posts and so many people jumping at the chance to answer? Maybe that’s also due to an aging and conservatizing user base. Or perhaps it’s just me. My god, that’s depressing.
Anyway, happy birthday to your dog triplets, Cher. Hope your sprained ankle’s on the mend. Please keep wearing a mask.
In writing this week, I’ve been focused on editing my second book, which now stands at 86,000 words. It somehow got slightly longer in the revision process as a result of my adding bits of connective tissue here and there. It’s funny how the little things can add up. I did a find and replace for the word “just” and it’s in there 233 times. Am I going to shave those off my word count? Hell no.
My current book is inching along. She’s sitting at around 20,000 words, taking her time. It’s okay. Every book is different. Every book is starting anew.
Count down instead of up, I say. It’s how people survive. A long trip gets subdivided by the mile markers. A hard day gets split by the quarter-hour, by the quarter-day. A hard week is over “the day after the day after tomorrow.” And, you know? If I’ve made it to 20,000 words, I’ve written a quarter of a novel.
I’ve never really cared for the “glass half-empty or half-full” way of describing someone’s life outlook. Like, how about both?
But I do appreciate that recognizing half-full glass means I get to call dibs on that shit and finish the drink before whoever poured it comes back. I grew up in a big family; it’s a jungle out there.
Optimists: keep an eye on ‘em. They’ll eat half your lunch.
By the way, Twitter eats my lunch.
If you’re on Twitter regularly, you’re aware of the treacherous undertow that algorithm has on the collective mental health of millions of people.
I want to return to the statistic about Facebook because in one of Pew’s infographics, Twitter is compared to the other social media platforms. Only 23 percent of Americans say they ever use it. That’s the same as the percent who use WhatsApp. Did you know? Because I don’t think most Twitter users know. (Same with Reddit, by the way, where only 18 percent of Americans say they’re ever on.) Here’s the graph:
Twitter has an outsized influence on our culture, especially in the “writing community” or for journalism and media. Part of it is the ease of networking and the public discourse free-for-all it enables, for better or worse. Part of it is the brevity of the format, which allows for rapid-fire communication and miscommunication and a wildfire-like viral spiral that is frankly not possible on Facebook.
It is my suspicion that writers and specifically reporters and media personalities use Twitter because it is incendiary, which gets you a lot of views.
Twitter’s a perfect mix, in fact, of incendiary and lazy. No coaxing is necessary to get the scoop, the quote, the “subsequently deleted” screenshot. It churns a lot more than Facebook. Lots of sharks in that water.
I say this for myself, too: It’s important to remember that what goes on out there on Twitter is not the world entire. We often, inevitably, move in narrow passageways of this vast and complex world. But to mistake the shadows on the wall for the world itself is actually a sign that we are failing as thinkers and writers.
Okay, that’s my PSA. Or my PSA (private, self-announcement).
Talk soon,
Edie