Cheating on “Consenting Adult” at Facebook

Are you on Facebook? I am. I resisted for eons, but now I have to admit that it has become a key source of info and connection and has, at least temporarily, replaced some aspects of my beloved blog. Does that make me a cheater? A slut? Before I explain why I sneak behind my blog’s back to play on Facebook, let me delve, for the first time, into my blogging process.

Writing, not Updating

I have never been a mood blogger – never used it to update people on my whereabouts, my stomach ache or my pets (perhaps because I have none). “Consenting Adult” has always been a platform for my writing, including cultural reviews (the Olympics), obituaries (Studs Terkel) and, of course, Sarah Palin (this one is a class analysis of her fancy clothes). I’ve written about The Daily Show’s flat-footed ridicule of older peoples’ sexiness in “The Daily Show Gets it Totally Wrong – Again,” about tootsie torture in “Running - Or Crawling - in High Heels,” and then there are my periodic rants against marriage (queer or hetero), like “Marriage-Schmarriage Revisited.”

What Does a Blog Posting Entail?
Each posting on my blog involves a serious chunk of non-paid time. First I need to do the research for the piece. Then I compose it, review it and revise it several times. If I’m lucky (and my readers are too), my personal editor also gets a chance to go over it. I search for freely shared images to accompany the piece (and get surprising little feedback from readers on that effort, despite working hard to make the illustrations funny or weird or pointed). Then I save it into a “notepad” (non-formatted) file before pasting it into my blog template.

Now begins the online formatting process of putting it into a font type and size that is easily read by eyes of all ages. I insert hyperlinks so people can effortlessly click to get to my original sources or further information, and then I insert the saved images. This can take several tries, because I need to experiment with the size and spacing of the photos. Book titles or foreign words that should be in italics are done by hand, one by one. I put subtitles in bold and indent longer quotations.

When everything’s looking tidy, I upload the posting and then I check it on the website itself. I go to another website that “announces” to the Internet that I have posted something and then I wait for Susan, my friend the Copy-Edit Police, to email me with errors or misspellings. Then I have to go back in and re-do and update.

If the piece resonates, readers will write with comments which I need to pre-approve by an awkward process that involves moving among several sites. If I want to reply online, I have to retrace that process again.

Facebook
Being active on Facebook is infinitely easier. It’s not a writing platform for me, so much as an amplification of my voice. It is one-click simplicity to enter a link or a video clip or a photo, and as simple as typing to add my editorial comment. A couple of times a day, I go all Facebook, reading and sometimes reproducing the entries of my Facebook “friends” (I hate Facebook’s cannibalization of the word “friend”), some of whom I only know virtually. Then I put up my own postings, often taken from the international press and referencing the issues that are important to me: sexualities, gender, the Middle East, boomers, ageing and my frustrations with the new administration.  If I want to lighten up for a minute, I put up some music I love via YouTube or an animation or cartoon.

It’s all so quick and easy to post on Facebook. But it isn’t writing.

I’m Back
Thanks to those of you who have written to ask where I disappeared to and why I haven’t been blogging very regularly. I’m coming back to my blog. Because I have a lot I want to say. Because I am a writer. And because sometimes just a link and a tune aren’t enough.

Comments

[Anita]

Greetings and welcome back!

[Shirley Moskow]

Welcome back!

[Sue Katz]

Thanks so much Anita and Shirley! Mwwaah! (air kiss)

[kaz]

Dear Sue
Welcome back!! I have been wondering where you were recently and thought maybe I had missed something and was worried about you...and there you were on facebook all the time. I truely love your blogs and appreciate them even more now it has become apparent how much work they entail.
Thanks.
xx Kaz

[Maggie Jochild]

i have resisted the musky call of Facebook because friends who are geekish tell me they retain some intellectual property rights over anything you post there. Which simply will NOT fly with me. I can't back that up with proof, just that the people who tell me such things are not conspiracy nuts in general.

I did give in and get on Twitter. Utterly worthless, in my opinion, except for the occasional poliical action.

Nothing beats writing. Nothing beats books. And yes, I ALWAYS grok your images and wonder where you got them. They don't enlarge when I click on them so I can't steal them all as I would like.

You take care, you delicate-minded, great-hearted, brawling beast of a warrior, you.

[Gema Gray]

So glad you came back. Your writing illuminates stories and opinions so often ignored by the mainstream press/media. I've missed your "voice" in my inbox.

I am still resisting Facebook...If I want a new friend, I'll go out into the world and interact with someone...

[Sue Katz]

I despise the cooptation of the word "friend" by Facebook, but although I have actually made a couple of virtual friends there, the main use for me is seeing all the postings of people who are keeping a very close eye on their particular area of interest. I get access to so much journalism I wouldn't otherwise know about - alternative, edgy, entertaining stuff. I have FB "friends" in various countries and it's a real education. Oh, and to Maggie, I haven't gotten into Twitter. I'm more interested in writing than updates.

[anita constantine-gay]

I think it is easy to overlook the effort you put in regarding images; readers enjoy them while taking for granted they'd be there.
Facebook has been a wonderful lifeline for me. I have been dealing with writers' block for some time, except for the collaborative work I've done for video. Having a place to put out what little I do write, even when it's as brief as a line or two, encourages me. Getting to know casual acquaintances better and reconnecting with old friends and relatives and talk about a broad range of subjects with them has been great. I am glad you are on Facebook, Sue, As much as I enjoy your blog.

[Windwalker]

Great to see you back, Sue! I've experienced the same pull from FB and Twitter, but sometimes, many times actually, a quickie is not enough.

[Sue Katz]

Steve, you KNOW I'm not going to argue with you there! To Anita and others who didn't realize what's involved in blogging, I'm sorry now that I didn't give a full accounting of all the steps - I just breezed over the process. It's worse than I recounted!

[Ruth Z Deming]

i'd gotten out of the habit of checking your blog since as you explained you'd become enamoured w/facebook. i'll greedily read any of your blogposts w/ferocious interest b/c as you say you're a writer, a born writer. i loved reading about your blogging process. and i do so enjoy your illustrations...totally unique and wonderful. glad you've returned to the blog format. i do love my own google blog which sounds much easier to work than your typepad one. our mutual friend stephen also had a google blog, not that i'm suggesting you change yours, i do love your classy colors.