I just spent hours scouring my Facebook page clean. The event that triggered this article was logging back in after three years of inactivity, only to read my own posts and think what an inane load of garbage I had created! In a journal entry from February 28, 1841, Henry David Thoreau writes, “Nothing goes by luck in composition… The best you can write will be the best you are. Every sentence is the result of a long probation. The author's character is read from title-page to end.”
Now, I’m not equating Facebook with a publishing house, but I do think it matters to consider what we write. I don’t use Facebook anymore, and I’ve realized that most of the sentences I posted in years gone by are not the result of a “long probation”. I deleted literally thousands of entries. Who wants to know about what I was listening to in November 2011? Or that delicious avocado sandwich I had for lunch on July 16, 2012? Thoreau’s notion that our very character is judged based on what we write is very important in 2016, where an employer, relative, friend, or loved one can Google you and find a plethora of social media contribution.
The idea that we should be careful with our online personae has been addressed before. I’m not trying to bandwagon on that, and I’m not saying that you should censor your ideas. I am asking the question, what would happen if we approached the issue from a different perspective? The concern is not that we’re going to say something offensive, or demeaning to someone that might lose us a job, or compromise a relationship, but that we are actually judged on the content and quality of what we post online. Writing, after all, is an extension of our thinking. Is the avocado sandwich I had for lunch, even though bloody* delicious, worth writing about? Your answer might be yes, and that’s OK. Maybe you’re a food critic? But isn’t it worth thinking about?
Facebook, Twitter etc., encourage us to share undeveloped ideas, we just need to remember that these ideas represent us. There is a concept in photography that applies here; manual focus lenses are sometimes used for their image quality. Some people are critical of their lack of autofocus, image stabilization, and other mod cons. These lenses perform an important role, though. They force you to slow down and consider what you are doing, and this can result in photographs that are just better. I think this pertains to writing, too. Even with a Facebook post, if we slow down, and consider our writing, and try, as Thoreau did, to produce our highest quality content, maybe we won’t have to worry so much about looking back in three years time at 1300 avocado sandwich posts, and what an utter nob** this makes us feel, and possibly look like to others.
*English term for very
**English term for cock
