My Complicated Relationship with Facebook

(A screen capture from my profile photo album on Facebook; I love how the juxtapositions form a kinda cool collage.)I've got a complicated relationship with Facebook. When Matt Staggs first set up an account for me, I kind of scoffed at Facebook. Me? Wanting to interact with people using status messages on a daily basis? Not this curmudgeon.Then I started using Facebook and became an addict. On a basic level, yes, the appeal was that I could keep up with my friends despite being frantically busy. I could actually remember their birthdays using this great external brain called "Facebook". I started using Facebook while doing projects that didn't require all of my brain---like editing, writing reviews, etc., so I found it a nice way of feeling connected and also of having some fun while getting stuff done.Eventually, I began role-play using Facebook, as a lot of these profile photos should demonstrate. Role-playing is a form of storytelling, and since I had so many book projects on my plate but not much time for writing fiction, I think I used the role-playing in the guise of, say, a capybara or a giant bear or a komodo dragon as a way of fulfilling a creative urge on a micro level. This was also important because, well, after writing my novel Finch I didn't really want to write any major fiction. It usually takes me awhile to recharge.At one point, in the guise of an alien baby icon, I wrote the beginnings of a short story in first person---on Facebook. I know many of my friends didn't know what the heck I was going on about, and others thought I was joking, but I found the process fascinating. As long as I stayed in character and answered the responses to my little posts of story fragments, I was advancing the narrative---and because many people didn't realize I was telling a story, the narrative took twists and turns I wouldn't have thought of without the prompts from my friends. In another case, I took on the persona of Mord, a giant Shardik-like bear who will figure in several future stories, and doing so gave me some idea of the parameters of the character.Now, about eight months since I became serious about Facebook, I use it as a mini-blog as well as a source of creativity, and, still, to keep up with friends. I have almost 2,000 friends now, many of whom I don't know, and so it really is more like a micro-blog platform than anything else. I post thoughts and content there that don't overlap with Ecstatic Days, or I try to provide it in a different context. (If you're not my friend on Facebook, feel free to add me---it's a mix of close friends, colleagues, readers, fans, industry professionals at this point.) I've also thought about finding some graceful way to include a Facebook feed in the sidebar, since this blog and my Facebook activity are often linked in some ways (blog posts here have sometimes started as posts/responses on Facebook).When I go on tour this fall, it'll be interesting to see how it affects how I use Facebook. It might mean I'll break from it and won't come back for awhile. In part because there have been instances at which Facebook has felt cramped---as if it allows thousand of voices into a mind already crowded with information. And I'm also aware that I may simply be conditioned to the response, much as a rat in an experiment becomes conditioned to receiving a food pellet if it performs a certain function. It's also led me to mistake it for a diary, in that I've posted status updates containing information I'd never divulge here on the blog, and in a couple of cases I've regretted it. (Other stuff is just perhaps too silly--like an updated status message at two in the morning about a flying cockroach.) And, finally, I'm sure Ann's felt like a Facebook widow at times.But I do know it has served a creative function for me this year as well, and three or four creative relationships that have led to projects have come about because of being on Facebook. So I may just have to accept the aspects of it that sometimes stress me to get the benefits from it . One thing's for sure---as in all things, moderation is the key. Currently, I'm glutting myself on Facebook, but eventually I'll have to pull back a bit.