Wednesday, February 20, 2013

A Social Experiment


It should come as no surprise that I am below the curve in social networking. I have spent the last few years casting a wary eye on these newfangled meeting places that are sprouting up on every virtual corner. Although I am technically of the internet generation (ah, the Millennials!), when it comes to my personal (cyber)space I am still lighting fires with sticks.


I exist only nominally on Facebook, I use Ravelry solely for pattern selling and purchasing, I routinely forget that Pinterest exists, Flickr just stores the photos that I use to blog, and I blog, well...sporadically at best. I do not pretend to loftier ideals or more productive usage of my time, I am a good little voyeur. The thing is, I am not a chattery sort of a person. The wallflower in me withers at the prospect of so much small talk -- and if nothing else, Twitter epitomizes small talk. I cannot pretend, even to myself, that more than a treasured few people want to hear my inanities, and let's all admit that online there is pressure to be surpassingly clever at every turn. I love community, but in an old-fashioned, one-horse-town sense, when community was what you had as an option to wilderness (I also love wilderness). It used to be we had communities because there were interstices between them, and either you made peace with your neighbors or built better fences. The internet and its social networks have effectively abolished the interstices, and now we are expected to commune with the cozy billions that occupy our dear little planet. Admit it: it's a daunting thought.


But when you grow up it's time to face facts. These tools fuel our world. They have made nobodies into superstars and compressed the circumference of our globe even more than the airbus was able to, and ignoring them may be a bit short-sighted. Especially when one is trying to be artistically self-employed. From home.


So yes, I am now a cautiously proud Twitterer. Er. Tweety? Tweeter? Whatever, I am sure the lingo will come. You can find me and my inanities @vivian_aubrey, and I am trying to tweet at least once a day. Heaven knows what I will come up with to say that often, but I am giving it the old college try. I don't want to fall into the trap of just always blabbing about my business, because surely if anything is more boring than dirt or hearing about my breakfast toast, it's constant and unapologetic self-promotion.



Unsurprisingly, Instagram has been a far more natural fit (all photos in this post from Instagram). Let the pictures do the talking, I say. I know, there was some kerfuffle about privacy and permissions and whatnot a while back, but I assume that nothing is sacred once you birth it into the ether anyway, so I'm not very bothered. And wow, what a rabbit hole of delirium this place is, people are lending some real weight to the undeniably bogus-sounding term 'iPhonetography' (and for us Android users, what...'Droidography'? Ouch). You can find me @vivianaubrey. I have put some really (technologically) ancient photos on there, like from my old flip-phone camera. These are the photos that inspired me to break out of film and go digital, to think maybe this leap into the future wasn't the devil. The resolution on them is pretty poor so let's keep them tiny, but they are still some of my favorite pictures.




The rest is where you, the reader, come in. As far as I can tell there are maayyyyybe five of you out there. While I take full responsibility for my own actions, let me just say that none of these things exist in a vacuum, and what's more, most of us wouldn't bother if they did. So if you are there, give me a little wave or a wink in the comments, maybe tell me what you like or wished I showed more of. Leave me links to your blog, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Google+, Ravelry profile, and I'll follow you and listen/look/read, too. And maybe others will as well. Come watch me take my first tottering steps out of my fussy old-womanish ways and into the brave new world, and show me how it's done like a pro. And then this whole virtual community thing will get just a little bit bigger, and maybe work just a little bit better. At least, that's the idea anyway.

Let's sweeten the deal: everyone who comments (even you friends and family members) has the option of sending me (vivianDOTaubreyATgmail) your mailing address and I'll send you a one-of-kind block print card by yours truly, with a nice little note on it just for you. Yes, it's perfectly acceptable to tell your friends. Thank you.




(**Edit to clarify that all these photos are still mine, I have not gone on a cybernetic crime spree, ruthlessly scalping others' hard work and trying to pass it off as my own. Carry on.**)

15 comments:

  1. Welcome to the 21st century, gal! Let me know when you're ready for that sidebar ad- I'll even do ya a little featured post.

    You already know all my info...but I totally want a block print card ;-)

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    1. Yours is already in the mail, darlin', and yeah...forgot about that ad. I don't deserve you, I really don't!

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    2. I'm just trying to butter you up in case I need a kidney.

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  2. I love reading your blog - your writing feels so familiar, like hearing from a longtime friend! (despite never having met - or the fact that I don't think I've ever commented before, sorry about that! =/)

    I think you should just keep on doing what you're doing! because it's awesome!

    p.s. I am going to follow you on instagram, I'm @knittingsquid there :)

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    1. Bestill my heart, you made my morning, thank you Erin! I am so glad to find you out there, thanks for coming out of the shadows for a minute. I would be delighted to send you a card, I promise not to do anything creepy with your information. Just shoot me an email, and I'll send some real mail -- which is ever so much more fun.

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  3. I love seeing your spinning, the likes of which I hope I'm capable of some day. I'm halfway to giving in to social networking; I've given in to facebook and especially ravelry but not twitter just yet and probably never instagram. I'm a wicked purist when it comes to photography stuff. I starting reading your blogs when I found them through Alex, whose blog I've been reading for a long while. I just love her hats. your creativity is just incredible and I really can't wait to see more. anyhow, I just entered the blogosphere over at refinedstrangeness.wordpress.com and so far it's been a ton of fun!

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    1. Ah, spinning! I wish I could say that my life has been full of all kinds of spinning that I have just not deigned to show you, but alas, the sad truth is my wheel sits on its chest making little dusty grumbling noises and coughing pathetically now and then in a gambit to get some attention. I have high hopes that I will find time to resume soon, because I miss it, too. Thank you so much for reading and for commenting, I love your 101 goals! Good luck with all of them.

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  4. p.s. to you and anyone else: I am serious about the card, I really love sending real mail. Just sayin.

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  5. I'm the 4th on here, but I imagine there are more than 5. Look how long I lurked before commenting.

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  6. I also followed you on twitter, where I shall continue lurking.

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  7. Thank you for lurking, thank you for reading, and thank you for speaking up! This has been illuminating, even though I still have no proof positive that there are really more than five people out there :)

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  8. There are only so many hours in a day, and yours look like they're full of your sweet children! Don't feel badly about not being able to do it all.

    I wish I could take your photostyling workshop this/next weekend, but I'm booked with family stuff. Maybe the next time around?

    I'm at http://pdxknitterati.com (blog), @pdxknitterati on twitter (where I follow you!), pdxknitterati on ravelry. I'm also on pinterest and google+, but I hardly ever check in on those. Like I said, only so many hours in a day...

    See you 'round! (Mostly on blog; my blog reader works on my schedule. I find it hard to keep up with twitter, but I try!)

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    1. Hi Michele! It's so awesome to see (sort of) the faces of old friends here! Hear hear about the hours in the day thing, let me know when you've figured out how to tame that beastie.

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    1. Becky! How wonderful to (briefly) hear from you! I am excited that you are returning to our area, I'd love to see you when you do. Please email me some time, I want to catch up on your life in the past decade or so...

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