Saturday, December 06, 2008

Let's Talk About Facebook Status Updates

Two reasons:
1) it will get me more hits on my blog
2) it is an interesting topic, and needs some attention

So for those of you that are hopelessly out there (eg NOT ON FACEBOOK), there is this feature called 'status update.' This keeps people posted on your whereabouts and doings. I love it for a great many reasons, but mostly because it makes me feel more connected to friends that are far far away. If I know they are currently at the store or making out with the upstairs neighbor or feeding their diabetic cat then I feel like we are still communicating with each other in some small way even if we haven't really communicated in ages.

But status updates have a higher purpose: creative character building (in a very public forum). You want to update your friends, sure, but you also want to create something people will remember you by (in a good way). For example, why would you simply say that you're at the store when you could say that you just farted at the store?

The problem is, you gotta put some effort into it to give your status update that higher purpose. And I recommend everyone try because otherwise it's a Big Opportunity Wasted. But if you try too hard it all goes wrong and that's just a bad scene. So at the very least, update your status like a normal person and if you get a chance, throw something good in there every once in a while.

My advice: ....aw heck, I don't have any advice because I'm still working it out myself. But here's some other good advice: if you think you know how to write good status updates, you need to write a book about it! then give me a cut because you will make a fortune.

If you are interested in doing further reading, check out these links:

What kind of Facebook Status Update Loser Are You? (outlines the seven-plus types of status updater with some humor)
Collection of Great Status Updates (a blog with many very funny updates on different subjects - not sure if you'd want to use them though!)
Top 10 things NOT to say in a Status Update (from WIRED - read this before you post!)

9 comments:

tom said...

I totally agree with you that this is an entirely unexplored venue of creativity, poetry, and just in general showing how cool you are. And I am completely off the boat here; I haven't updated in months. Justin, on the contrary, updates almost every day with clever stuff that only a select group of people are privy to understanding, but, if you follow him carefully as I do, you can get the hang of some of it, and if you learn French, you can pick up some of the rest.

But what I want to say is: what about FB status poetry? What about telling a whole story in a single status? What about making your status a picture (or changing your picture so often that it is, by itself, a kind of status?) What about a running serial novel that's all told in your stat-i? (plural of status?)...what about rambling, incoherent, multilingual, mixed-media (movies thrown in) stat-i?

See, I have all these plans for taking the bull by the horns, so to speak, yet I've done nothing. Paralyzed by indecision, and the multitude of possibilities!

Good luck harvesting hits on this one- I think it's a genius idea! Though I myself found this blog by googling "purple cauliflower"...

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