Saturday, March 12, 2011

Filter

I have previously, though briefly, discussed how social media (blogs, facebook, twitter, etc) allows us filter our lives so as to portray to those who "follow" us or are "friends" with us just exactly what we want them to see. We construct for them a reality of ourselves that is calculated and, to be candid, not always entirely honest.

*Gasp*

Does little Sammy lie to us? Is he really not the sweet, quick-witted charmer that his gripping and humorously poignant prose would have us believe?

That's for you to decide for yourselves. But over the past week I've had the flu and have spent a good share of that time on the couch doing the following: watching TV (Sportscenter and House mostly), watching (sleeping through?) movies, reading Lake Wobegon Days, reading the good parts version of The Lightning Thief and, of course, spending copious amounts of time on the interwebs.

Being on "the net" so much has caused me to think in facebook status mode for a couple days now. I'm constantly coming up with new facebook statuses...stati. Many of them haven't made the cut. If I were an active twitterer tweeter songbird user of twitter I'd have just tweeted them and been done with it. But I'm not. So I didn't. Thus, in the interest of candor, I've decided in favor of full disclosure here on my blog. (I still hate that word.) Here follows a selection of the sediment from my facebook filter.

"Headed to the bathroom. Any book suggestions?"

"I love rice. rice rice rice."

"I want to live, I want to give, I've been a miner for a heart of gold."

"Sometimes I look at cheese and think, moldy milk. And then I want to throw up."

"I'm glad God invented basketball."

"You know I love you (P. Y. T.) pretty young thing."

"I feel like a steamy pile of horse caca steeped in horseradish sauce and sauerkraut juice."

"Send me on my way."

"I wanna be the King of Spain."

"I think the writers of House are full of malarkey."

"The word malarkey is used far too infrequently."

"Charles Barkley is full of malark...ley. nope."

Ok those last two are recent creations, but there you are, a cross-sectional view of the inner thoughts of an ill Samuel James Dunn, Esq. ranging from inane to musical plagiarism to excessive information. What does a view from the filter tell you about who I am?

4 comments:

  1. It tells me that you're stark raving mad. :) Actually, I think about this filter idea all the time. From my recent schooling, I've learned that that there are so many ways to skew a message—from filtering what topics are presented to framing the way an idea is presented. It's all about persuasion, whether people like to admit it or not. Sorry to throw the school thing in there. :)

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  2. I LOVE Heart of Gold. neil young is great. so is mj and pyt.

    as for book suggestions, have you read the book thief?? fantastic fantastic. though i wouldn't recommend taking it to the bathroom because you would never leave. poor chado would have to come in and get you off--he's good at that, i've seen him in action


    (ps, in response to your first paragraph, i wondered if my lack of capitals would make me come off as lazy. but i am lazy, so i will be honest and leave my unedited edition)

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  3. Would it be any surprise to you to know that none of these stati changed the way that I see you at all? Nay, but they did make me happy. "Send me on my way." Mmmmm. I have a confession too though, sometimes I think something witty and then say to myself, "That would make a great status," and then file it away in my mind to later post on the FB. What a sad, digital facade of a life I lead

    Morgie's right, if you had happened to fall into the potty, you know that I would have pulled you right out.

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  4. The writers of House ARE full of malarky. I know this because I am married to a science nerd.

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