Social media | Nine Writes

I’m not an expert with social networking, but I have a Facebook account to connect with people I’m closest to, and I have a blog to connect with folks on the web. To my husband, a social network means a company picnic and his face on a billboard… I never expected there’d come a day when he’d be schooled.

When he returned from fishing, horns tooting and “Whoopie!” shouting, Marie and my husband flaunted their prizes and took pictures with their phones.

“Baby Beth, hold this up so I can take your picture,” Marie told her daughter.

“I don’t wanna. It’s icky,” Baby Beth said.

“Oh, common. I’ll help you,” said my husband.

Snap. Snap. Snap.

After taking several “good ones” with their smart phones, my husband and daughter compared their catches.

“I’m posting my shots on Facebook,” Marie declared, deftly tapping her phone. Within seconds, the picture of Baby Beth’s grimace holding an icky fish was shared with the world.

Marie hopped to the computer and logged in. “Mom, come look.”

“Oh, Lordy!” On the nineteen inch monitor flashed a picture of my granddaughter struggling with a dead 4lb. bass. At this very moment, our entire family could see them on Facebook. Ah…the wonders of the modern world.

“These are great. How can I print these out?” my husband asked, looking over my shoulder. My dear husband, bless his heart, does not know how to use the features on his smart phone. Marie, bless her heart, did not want to teach him how people pass around pictures nowadays.

“You need a Facebook account, Dad. I’ll set one up, if you want…”

He sighed, shook his head, and left. It was not his thing.

Marie and I seized the moment to introduce him to social media and all its glorious splendor. While he was outside cleaning the fish, Marie and I zip-lined him to the twenty-first century. We opened a Facebook account for him, uploaded his pictures (a profile, too!), and sent “friend” requests.

After dinner, Marie braved a Facebook demonstration on his smart phone. She had synced his accounts and showed him how to upload pictures and access his email.

During her lesson, he held his breath and concentrated. Yes! He’s taking it in, I thought. Within minutes, his eyes glazed. He blinked repeatedly. Oh, no. Marie had overloaded his microchips. The program is not responding. Do we wait or end program now? We waited.

It worked! We squealed as he accessed Facebook and patted him on the back as he opened his picture files. I can’t say he was delighted, but he grinned at our enthusiasm.

The next day, he slammed his phone on the table. “I hate Facebook.”

“Why?”

“My phone’s been vibrating all day. People keep leaving messages wanting to be “friends” on Facebook. I’m too busy for that crap.”

I took his phone and tapped off the notifications. Poor guy. He’ll still catch fish, but he won’t be using the networks of the twenty-first century.

Have a great weekend. And thanks for stopping by!

Note: I’m re-posting this in case you haven’t seen it.

It’s inevitable. Throughout time, writers have used technology to write – movable type, ball point pens, the electric typewriter, and the ultimate writing machine – the word processor.

What if writers of the 20^th century like Hemingway, Faulkner, or Fitzgerald used the technology of today? Would they have accomplished more? What would 20th century writers do with word processors, the internet, or blogging? There’s only one way to find out.

I invited Mr. Steinbeck into my imagination for an interview.

Here’s a transcript of our conversation…

Ms. Nine: Welcome, Mr. Steinbeck. Thanks for spending e-time on my blog today.

Mr. Steinbeck: Please, call me ‘the Stein’; it’s my tag.

Ms. Nine: (the Stein?? I could NEVER!)… >cough< …I’ve invited you here so writers could benefit from your perspective on being a writer in the 21^st century.

Mr. Steinbeck: Writers are a little below clowns and a little above trained seals.

Ms. Nine: Uh..okay, if you say so… This is my first posthumous interview and I’m a little nervous… So here’s my first question. How do you feel about using a word processor?

Mr. Steinbeck: I hate computers. They know so much more than I do. Using a computer forces a writer to think harder, faster, stronger.

Ms. Nine: Would these modern tools have helped you write?

Mr. Steinbeck: After I won the big P for The Grapes of Wrath, it was tough getting back on track. I mean, I still had more writing to do. Maybe if I had a word processor I would have won that Nobel Prize a lot sooner. Who’s to say?

Ms. Nine: Would you have finished The Acts of King Author and His Nobel Knights?

Mr. Steinbeck: You had to mention that thorn in my side. I’m not making excuses, but in my day writers had to set priorities. Yeah, maybe a word processor would have helped. But back then writers believed in the perfectibility of man. We didn’t write frivolously. We wrote – I wrote – to bring awareness of the economic and social injustice of the time. I was making a statement!

Ms. Nine: This brings me to my next topic – J. Edgar Hoover, the League of American Writers, and the Cold War Communist witch hunt. Do you think using social media and the internet would have made a difference?

Mr. Steinbeck: If I could have tweeted about what happened to Charlie Chaplin and the Smothers brothers, the resulting public outcry might have stopped all that Communist brouhaha. I am clever with words. But remember, if I could have accessed social media, so could McCarthy and Hoover. The ability of social media to shape collective consciousness is astounding. It flows in all directions.

Ms. Nine: One last question – would you have used a website to promote your work?

Mr. Steinbeck: At this point, I have grown beyond my work, walked up the stairs of my own concepts, and emerged ahead of my accomplishments, all achieved without a website. Ironically, now that I’m dead, I have at least a dozen.

Well, there you have it – a 20^th century perspective on writing in the 21^st century. Makes you think, doesn’t it?

Thanks for stopping by!

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