So, it's been an interesting few months, living without Facebook. After struggling rather more than I expected to with withdrawal, I have gradually mostly readjusted to the new normal of life largely without Facebook. And, not surprisingly, life lived largely without Facebook is mostly pretty good!
But I didn't leave Facebook to improve my quality of life. There are things I like about Facebook and that I miss - most importantly the ease with which it allows us to connect with friends and family and people who are important to us. As I wrote in my "farewell to Facebook" post:
I don't want to leave. Facebook is an important medium for online interaction - one of the agora of our day. But I don't feel I can, in good conscience, stay on the terms that Facebook is forcing me (and, by extension, those who know me as "Father Justin") to agree to.
So, I'm going to try again. On my own terms this time.
Here's the experiment. Before I became a priest, I was (as you can see from some of the earliest parts of my website) an aspiring author. And I still like to write. So... since one of my jobs as a writer is to create characters...
Meet Hugh Nano. He's a nice young man who lives in my basement suite and plays lots of video games. He knows me rather well, as both Fr. Justin and as Edward. He's been on Facebook ever since I was forced to circumvent another of Facebook's stupid policies by typing him into existence. (If anyone's interested in the incident, I'll tell you about it sometime in another post...) I'm happy to be able to say that the stupid policy that led to Hugh Nano's creation no longer exists, but his Facebook profile still does.
Since Hugh doesn't have much of a life of his own (and thus currently has no friends and no posts to speak of on Facebook), he's agreed to use his Facebook profile to keep people informed about me... both as Fr. Justin and as Edward. This will allow us to make the distinction that I've been struggling to make ever since I encountered Facebook (namely, that while most people know me as Fr. Justin, there are also many who know me simply as Edward) and will allow us to sidestep the issue that rankles me most about Facebook's heavy-handed "no titles" policy (namely, Facebook's "North American cultural imperialism that would force the majority of my Facebook friends to address me online by a name they are unfamiliar with and using a level of informality they are uncomfortable with").
Hugh has also agreed to follow my long-established practice of only accepting Facebook "friend" requests from (and extending them to) people that I actually know, usually because I've met them in-person, and only very occasionally from those I've met and gotten to know purely online. In other words, if you "friend" Hugh and he doesn't accept your friend request, please don't be offended... It's probably just that I don't feel I know you yet - or quite possibly my poor memory for names!
It'll be an interesting experiment - at the very least to see how long Facebook will let Hugh's Facebook profile "live". Hugh Nano is his real name, and there's no title embedded there, so neither of those issues should be a problem... ;) And I look forward to getting back in touch with many of you through Hugh's profile... at least for as long as Facebook allows the experiment to continue.
"Introducing Hugh Nano: A Facebook experiment"
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