[Cross-posted at The Left Coaster.]
It’s been on my minor adjustment list for quite a while to wander over to Time’s website and peruse the work of one Anna Marie Cox with a fresh perspective to see how good she is, or has possibly become. I haven’t liked her since the 2004 Democratic convention, right, she was anchoring some video of the convention hall and then came upon the earnest bloggers perched in their lofty seats of cantankerous liberal change.
"Ah," she said, arching an eyebrow. "The geeks," she conspiratorially intoned, like in freaks, Jesus you got that mike in your hand only because of a geek blog and the buzz we helped you with’n see how long it takes me to forget it when you diss my people like that, in the corporate big-time now video bitch. Yeah.
But that was a long time ago, okay, people change, she has talent and maybe three years of work has evolved into something pretty good, or at least worth a glance now and then. Although I never appreciated the negative connotation of rhymes with freaks, it’s still seriously wrong, I do have to give Ms. Cox credit some of the reason the jab struck home was that she was partly correct, of course, I’m just as much a computer political geek as the friends and heroes she was making fun of.
I am chained to the computer, I modestly work in html and by the time early evening family evolutions arrive I’ve been in the screens hard at it for at least 12 hours. Nighttime tubing turns a typical surf day into a eyeball burn of 14 hours reading and commenting in political blogs, ten hours of employment computer labor folded in. Although certainly not a "geek" in even a lot of people’s understanding of the word (I can build a blog in Movable Type and Drupal now, anyway) I am one of the Machine People, of that there is no doubt.
It shouldn’t have surprised me, but news recently broke that Facebook, the "grown-up" social networking site on the web, started making money, amazingly, by charging $1 for the sending of icons, of freaking pixels, for chrissakes, from one member to another. Facebookies like it, a lot of them do it, the dough rolls in, damn. I, of course, am a Facebookie myself, nothing serious, but I’ve got friends and a limited profile. As a machine people facebookie how would I react, truly, if I got one of those pixel gifts from someone?
I have to pause carefully in my mind because, I swear I see people and do things and go places I have a life, I’ve found (unlike Kevin Drum, who kept me uncomfortably aware of my geekiness when he wrote dismissively of the experience) Facebook to be a very, very powerful emotional encounter in the ether. It has to be a little sad on some level, but it’s my Friend’s list. I’ve never been so flattered in all my life.
Melissa McEwan is my friend in Facebook. Holy shit, Melissa McEwan is my friend in Facebook! Ever since it’s happened my reaction is precisely the same, I’m amazed a writer and soul of such stratospheric never-to-be-personally-reached talent, class and achievement would be so nice to me. It’s fuckin’ true.
It’s pretty funny, the way it’s worked out is that when I think of her profile picture in my Friend’s list the thought always comes into my head that she’s saying forget the feminine sphere of influence as you take in the world and I will find you, you little shit, with that incomparable arched eyebrow gracing a sparkling smile. I guess it’s finally time to let her know, yes ma’am, never a problem!
Every time I view the list the experience is remarkably fresh in its dumbfounding flattery with each entry, I swear. Eric Boehlert is my friend. Eric fucking Boehlert! The Blogfather is there, I’ll be a sumbitch, there he really is. Juan Cole! Gina Cooper! I farking kid you not, Peter Daou, Jeeeeeeeeeeeesus, Peter Daou. I have to be careful when I get to Arianna Huffington, that’s some powerful goddamn web experience not to be treated lightly, not in my world, anyways. Kevin Drum has missed out on some extremely intriguing facets of Facebook, of that there is no doubt.
It’s just some networking tool that might be, possibly, useful in the development of liberal politics so we can stop the authoritarian Republican creeps from taking over our country. Right? I don’t stop by that much, and you did find that long-lost friend from the Navy in Facebook, correct? It does have uses, that was seriously cool, it’s just pixels in a computer, these amazing humans who write and accomplish as you will never do aren’t your friends, of course not. It’s just something that might be a good communication tool, that’s all, just a small part of the surf every day, fun for a few twists in the waves now and then—for a webhead political geek—but not really that important, not yet.
Very true, yes. It’s also true I got "super-poked" in Facebook by a masked redhead Daily Kos hotshot this morning, she got front-paged on Veteran's day, damn right. Bye guys, I gotta go.