« Facing the Book »

Dammit, I am getting drawn into the world of Facebook. Oy! Between JEM and the young adults group at church, I've had to face the business of FB being the de facto tool for making things known today. I find it rather confusing, really. I mean, the wall, the profile, the additional page for JEM, or groups, etc. I prefer to know when I am clearly in "my" space, or in JEM's or in the YA world, but I swear, the lines are rather blurred in how things interact with my own account.

I have found it a bit more suitable for the short form stuff that comes to mind, but as you know, I don't do short form much. Not here anyway. Not on TAPKAE.com! I do reckon more people will stumble past the FB site than this site. Kind of a bummer because this has been the center of my work for a long time now—nine years on TAPKAE.com. Now that I got the JEM site happening on the SquareSpace platform, I am getting really restless with TAPKAE.com, notably so with the sluggishness that must be a problem of web hosting. I don't know for sure, but on the JEM site, the thing is pretty quick both as user and as author (all the site editing work is done in browser interfaces). I am entertaining jumping ship from my host that I have had for over six years now. But SS is rather expensive and don't have email hosting, maybe necessitating Google Apps or some other hosting. So...

My main task as a web author at any level, at this time in life, is to try not to be subsumed into the technology. I still prefer the in-person contacts that have been a defining element of relationships at church. My own history with digital communication has been a rocky one, so it is timidly that I embrace using it for keeping connected with people who I have been close to in person. Part of it is the usual stuff like the lack of body language and such nuanced expression, but frankly, FB is more convenient than getting dressed and riding off to see someone in person. But I noticed immediately that FB also made me feel like a voyeur as I looked at the lives of people who I knew in person, but apparently in a limited way! The surprise at that is something you can bargain for with people from your party/school/rock band past, but it does feel odd when they're people from church! Also, the real clipped form of FB communication is handy for planning or collaborating, but not for saying anything of any real worth. So I still long for in-person contact, even as it takes more time and effort. But I have to admit to being drawn in to the whole digital scene this summer. I shall strive for some more balance now that that hot few months of new computer/new JEM site (in two main builds)/Kunstler site/podcasting/new audio setup has all subsided into something manageable.