4-23-21
8:42 am Friday
It is Friday and Viggo and I need to do something fun for “Fun Fridays”!
I have started my project of working on Facebook. This is to show an arch of a story. This story arch will demonstrate our values, how the farm embodies these values and more specifically about the work being done here on the American Malay and Asils. The goal is to get people engaged and to try to get support financially through selling chickens. My ultimate goal is to get engagement so I can organize “Mighty Marches” contrasting urban lifestyles against farming lifestyles. This is motivated by an artistic / poetic/ philosophical urge more than a financial desire. There is something that I seem to want to say, but I am not sure what it is or why I have this need. I will let it slowly develop and see what happens, this is a long-term goal.
I have noticed something troublesome about Facebook. I have not used it much in the past. Now that I am using it, I find that when I post, I desire for engagement. I find that the pleasure of some stranger saying anything neutral to positive to be highly rewarding. I can see how easy it would be from the posting side of Facebook, to spend more and more time there. I have made a choose not to look at anyone’s posts because I am aware of the danger of just watching other people, and I do not want to do that. It is a very strange experience. I should watch other people to be polite, if I expect that of them, but I will not. So, I am already doing something strange by wanting people to watch me. This is not very generous of me. It is a very strange environment.
Going back to me posting, I can see myself getting praise from people I do not know and having it be as valuable as praise from friends and family. This is very strange. It seems to me to be too easy of a way to have a relationship. That getting praise, love or appreciation from friends and family is hard work. My guess is therefore many of us seek these things not from the people around us but from our “online family and friends”.
In the times of “virus” this surely has positive attributes for people to be connected and supported virtually, but it makes me very uncomfortable. The phenomena of having strangers appreciating you seems akin to the phenomena of fame. On Facebook we all can be famous.
I will work on Facebook to try to tell a story, but if I find it too repulsive to me, too much in contradiction to my values, I will stop.
“Into the belly of the beast I go, snapping my fingers and tapping my toes.”
I am thankful for this opportunity.