The Mockingbird Sings...
Tuesday, 24 March 2009
Call me cynical, suspicious or just call me old, but the social media frenzy is kind of dumb. I’m not mocking social media, well yes, I am, but for good reason. Who on earth needs one more of “one of those things?” One more distraction or temptation? And anyway, the collective have a double-secret-probation-pop-culture name too: social media. Please. More like “we are Borg.”

Then one day, as the story goes, for an inexplicable reason, I decided to check it out. I created a Facebook page and a Twitter user ID. I've found that Facebook is useful as both a professional and personal communication tool. Many of my colleagues are only on Facebook, so this becomes our means of exchanging information and ideas. Twitter, on the other hand, has connected me to new people -- to theatre artists all over the world. I have exchanged scripts with these people (I refuse to call them tweeps: ridiculous) and have written Twitter Plays. Tplays are entirely contained within one tweet (140 characters) and are an excellent exercise in economy.

The most amazing thing about Twitter is its direct influence on my writing. Early in my explorations, I had a conversation with Joshua in NY about a video that contained, of all things, people wearing animal head costumes. Joshua said he’d choose a swan head. Days later, Julia from Phoenix described a guy she knew from 1992 who found her on Facebook. I made a snarky remark, and in her reply she asked if I meant the guy or the poodle.  I had no idea how the poodle fit into the stream, but the ripples were fabulous.  Out of these two conversations a 10-Min play was born: The Guy from 1992. I won’t give away the premise, plot or the choice to be made; however, I will say that it’s dark, crazy and funny.  

Each vehicle has its own defining shape: Facebook is a venn diagram, while Twitter is a spider web. They are like the promise of a new purse: like my friend Debra says, “If I just keep visiting it, maybe I won’t have to buy it.” I’m pretty sure that’s not working for her. Without the constraint of “just visiting” Facebook and Twitter, I might actually lose track of what I’m paying for them. I definitely have to monitor my usage. To be sure, my time is an investment and not wasted mindless hours. Twitter, especially, is a provider of both social and professional resources rather than a drain. And in the end, as the story goes, this once skeptical mockingbird is now singing “tweet, tweet, tweet.”