Work Wednesday
Facebook wants to know what's on my mind. No more "What are you doing?" Instead, "What's on your mind?" I'm feeling more than a little uneasy over this change in status update protocol.
Now, this is not another rant about how the Facebook redesign stinks. (It does.) And it's not about all the privacy issues with Facebook itself (ranging from people who,to put it mildly, are virtual extroverts to murky online targeting techniques). And it's not about the possibility that Facebook, with its much-vaunted 175 million users worldwide, is engaging in a massive thought control experiment. That's not my concern. (At least not in this blog.)
No, the issue for this 40-something busy mom and lawyer is that the answer to "What's on your mind?" is often mind-numbing, sometimes frightening, and frequently ridiculous. Since Facebook announced the change a few weeks ago, I've been trying to keep track of what's on my mind. The problem is, I keep forgetting. (This, in itself, is distressing as I cruised through most of my life - at least until I had kids - simply by memorizing everything).
So, for the last 24 hours, I wrote down what's on my mind.
Here's a sample:
- Why does my 3 -year-old son keep insisting that there's a giant bunny in his room that wants to eat him -- at 4:00 a.m.?
- If the economy never recovers, will we ever be able to send our kids to college? Will I have to work until I'm 92?
- I really need to lose a few pounds. I should exercise. That chocolate hazelnut cake is really good. I can sneak another slice and it won't matter.
- I am tired of reading articles about Michelle Obama's arms. Or her newly-planted vegetable garden. (I applaud both, though!)
- Something in our front hallway smells really bad.
- We need more milk. We always need more milk.
- Why is my boss sending me messages at 11:37 p.m.? And why am I answering him at 11:42 p.m.?
- I'd like to be famous when I grow up. But I still don't know what I want to do.
There's a lot more but I've made my point. Most of what's on my mind should not be shared with my several hundred dear and intimate Facebook friends – or anyone else. "What's on your mind?" sets the bar too high for those of us with small kids and smaller thoughts. (After all, isn't motherhood of necessity about doing without thinking too much?) I'd like to blame marriage, mommyhood, and my choice of career, but my thoughts were probably no less banal when I was young and carefree than they are now that I am older and encumbered. Dorothy Parker (or, less fusty, Sarah Silverman) I am not.
Of course, "What are you doing?" often elicited equally mundane observations. Although I occasionally fired-off a status update tinged with mystery ("Stacy is.") or glamour ("Stacy is living it up in Paris!"), more often that not, my true status was "Stacy is at work" or "Stacy is talking to her husband" or "Stacy is schlepping her kids around" or "Stacy is making lists" or "Stacy is loading the dishwasher." I didn't bother posting those. Just as I probably won't post what's really on my mind.
At the end of the day, I'll probably do what one friend advised and ignore the new prompt. And just say whatever it is what I want to say. Isn't that the fun of Facebook?
You might want to check your numbers :) Facebook, inexplicably, has 175 Million, not 1.75 Million users :)
Posted by: Steve | Thursday, April 02, 2009 at 08:27 AM