A Pastime or Necessity?

 

I ventured on to social networking after my head injury. I was told to practice what I did not want to lose. It was a short list: writing, painting, and photography. I suffered the CBT while teaching skiing; something I had done for more than ten years. But it was almost immediately clear I had skied my last day.

But skiing was just a love I did almost like aerobics. It was exercise for my otherwise sedentary occupations; freelance writing and making Mardi Gras Masks. My injured brain was having issues with the masks. Writing, however, was easy to practice on a computer. And I already had editors willing to assist me to continue writing. It was Y!360 then. For me it was therapy. But I made friends while making progress. And when Y!360 crumbled because of an unstable platform I followed my friends to other platforms. Facebook seemed to be where people I knew went. Sure it was not perfect. You had to keep your posts to 140 characters at first and then to 400. But I compromised by keeping this platform where I could blog.

Facebook expanded by allowing Fan Pages where I could hawk my wares. Wares changed. It was easier for me to paint than to work on 3-D sculptures that must fit faces. And my need for social media changed. Once just a place to chat with friends it became where I caught up with my community. There was in my rural area no radio, no local TV, major TV networks were not capturable with an antenna, newspapers failed or were no longer available at the market.

Rather than sit down at my computer in the evening and catch up with the world and my friends in the world, I would turn on the computer first thing and sip coffee, check email, and the activity on Facebook where most of my friends of 20 years had landed after Yahoo, and Multiply, Twitter. Groups like the art council I belonged to and the chamber of commerce which posted local events all had pages on Facebook. I connected over coffee with friends to see for lunch, etc. Gradually my friend base was no longer just far flung friends around the world but neighbors down the road or just across the street.

Then came Covid-19 and lock down (or lock up) and Facebook was the only way to communicate. Nobody answered phones because they were all scam calls. Same with emails. Do not open if they are not on your contact list. And now captured Facebook found it had total control. If you do not obey their guidelines they just shut you out so you cannot chat with your friends. I have been locked up five times now and am constantly puzzled why the Proud boys and the former guy were allowed to launch an insurrection on Facebook without being put into solitary confinement but suggesting burning a hornet's nest earns me seven days in FB Jail.

And at the worst possible time it seems. Our little rural community is currently experiencing the absolute worst spike in Covid-19 cases since this all began. Who has it, where is it, where it began, etc is all on FB where I am not allowed to go for seven days. And for reasons I have not quite figured out this also closed down all my business pages where no imagined violation of community standards has been committed. And with my physical studio shut down by the governor my only means of hawking my wares, and earning any money. Art is non-essential and obviously so am I. 

The last two days has made me realize that what was a social platform for me is now a utility. A necessity in my rural tourist invested area, currently a vector for disease. The image which springs to mind is of people being padlocked inside their houses because they have the plague.