2007-10-09

Leaving's Not The Only Way To Go.

The last few days have been interesting, ever since I pulled the plug on the MySpace account. It's like watching a ship slowly sink: you (or rather - the version of you that you've created) don't immediately vanish once you've confirmed with The Almighty Tom that you really, truly don't want to be there anymore. Your picture stays up on other people's profiles for at least a day or so, and then it disappears from SOME profiles, but not ALL. Same with any comments or private messages that you've left.

It's sort of sad. You slowly fade away, but life in the online junior high cafeteria known as MySpace goes on. Another profile slides into the slot you've vacated on somebody else's Top 8. LisaMcC? Oh -- wasn't she the one who posted all of those annoying bulletins trying to get people to help her move?

I confess that I've popped into the 'Space since cancelling my account last Friday, partly for the existential jollies of watching myself disappear from everyone's virtual lives, but also out of sheer habit. Without my own account, though, there's very little I can view or participate in, and so I wander off, feeling vaguely "out of it," like a substitute teacher who's never in on the joke.

After I graduated high school, I would go back and visit. I had friends in the grades behind me, teachers I wanted to keep in touch with. And it was fun at first. But over time, it became obvious that I had no business being there. Certain teachers upon whom I was sure I'd left a lasting impression struggled to remember my name, pretended to be interested in my post-secondary-educational pursuits, tried to make small talk until it got so awkward they'd suddenly remember some meeting they had to be at. Eventually I got the hint, and stayed away.

I'm not sorry I shitcanned the MySpace. At the risk of sounding like a total freak, it had become a bad, bad thing for me. Experience has taught me that when something ceases to be enjoyable, and yet you keep at it hoping that it will be enjoyable again, it's time to let it go. I worry that I've lost a significant portion of my "audience" -- that if my writing isn't on a MySpace blog, it may as well not exist.

So I sit here on this site and wait, the way you manage to find an empty room at a huge party and hope that some kindred soul will find you.

lisamcc at 8:21 a.m.

4 comments so far
lj lindhurst
2007-10-09 16:15:52
I read your shit.
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LisaMcC
2007-10-09 16:20:34
Yeah, but you're one of those fortunate souls that never got sucked into MySpace's maelstrom of tedium.
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lj lindhurst
2007-10-09 16:35:51
Actually, I'm on there (myspace.com/ljlindhurst) but I find it every bit as boring and tedious as you do. And I freakin HATE IT when I click on someone's profile and LOUD MUSIC starts to play!! When will people learn that just because THEY think a song is great not everyone wants to be subjected to it when they are in front of their computer? (huge pet peeve of mine!) And don't even get me started on the "design" of myspace... come to think of it, I hate it, too! I am going to go burn myspace to the ground and then I am going to wipe my butt with its ashes... I'll show you, "TOM"!
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LisaMcC
2007-10-09 16:42:13
Ha ha HA! Revolution! We won't settle for your "social networking" gruel while the upper classes eat cake on LinkedIn! The people have SPOKEN, Tom!
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