Friday 16 August 2019

Letter to Matt Bourne - on claiming that nothing but self promotion can ever happen on facebook

Matt Bourne - It’s all about shameless self-promotion. Facebook is not a catalyst for meaning, nor does it inspire grace or modesty. It brings out the twats in all of us - especially me ;)



It's not all about shameless self-promotion, especially if you have nothing to promote, plus facebook doesn't bring out the twats in people at all unless you convince yourself it will, would like it to do so, or are looking for an excuse to be one.

Yo
u seem to have decided what the limits of facebook can ever be prior to even writing anything within it. "Facebook IS this....Facebook IS that...", painting a picture of Facebook as a tool which possesses only one function. 

Is it not your personal belief that everyone's goal on here is self-promotion that is possibly causing you to feel cynical and find it impossible to accept anything other than self-promotion could ever take place in such a commercially mediated online space? Fair enough if you do, but for me it's not the case. 

One interesting thing I've noticed is that many of my friends who are performers, who are used to experiencing the script whereby they get up on stage then share their skills, express their souls and passion for their art in the presence of an audience, which then applauds them at the end, making them feel good. A source of validation to feed the confidence that their choice of life direction was a wise one...... Many of these performer friends of mine seem to feel like wherever they are, they are permanently on a stage, even when nobody's around. 

I think having a career path or vocation which has an end goal of receiving a positive reception from an audience, and then that positive reception being linked to you receiving financial compensation as a result -"The more people like my work, the more likely they will buy it and the richer I will become". If your life has that aspect to it then I think its only natural for you to see everyone else's activity on facebook through your lenses which have been cut from self-promotional glass. 

I'm not a performer. I can't even stand the sight of my own face in my profile pic! plus I work in a field where I'm surrounded by people who society forgets about all the time, so speaking to people on facebook for me always feels like a one-to-one experience. I don't have a sense of an audience badgering me, looking over my shoulder with their judgments and criticisms. Each day I just go to work and then come back home. The world at large never learn of me. Just the way I like it.

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