Stuff That I Have Noticed # 13 – In Praise of Facebook
Many folks complain, with some justification, about the downside of social media; Twitter, Instagram and the myriad others about which I know little or nothing but I’m here to write about the upside of Facebook.
I know, I know, Facebook has been getting a lot of bad press lately and deservedly so but from the vantage point of … I’m searching for the right word … seniority, there’s a lot to appreciate about it.
I opened a Facebook account in September 2009 though I didn’t use it much. Even so, in the next couple of years the first wonder of Facebook became apparent to me. I was able to find and reconnect with more than several old friends with whom I’d lost contact, exchange phone numbers and email addresses and renew dormant relationships using more private forms of communication.
Other than finding these connections I paid Facebook very little attention until June of 2013. That’s when my book marketing coach, Don McCauley, began teaching me to use social media to market my book.
At that point I had just published Three Stages the first volume of my memoir trilogy which covers my early life in Tennessee, migration to Hollywood and my years as an actor/singer. Don dubbed it a “celebrity book” for marketing purposes because of the many stars I’d worked with.
Anyhow, once I became active on Facebook and started connecting with my (actual) friends it slowly dawned on me that I was learning a lot about many of them – mostly film-crew people and performers I’d worked with over forty-plus years – that I’d never suspected. There were gregarious grips, political prop masters, caustic cameramen, erudite electricians with a mix of admirable traits and expressive locution all over the place. Activist actors and poetic pianists I knew from theatre. It’s amazing how much and yet how little I knew of these people with whom I’d shared so much. I even discovered a couple of damn good authors – Actor Brandon Maggart and Prop-master Jeff Naparstek – among my old theatre and film pals and another, retired L A detective Jess Waid from Hollywood High. (I did the voice over for Jess’ video pitch.)
Jess Waid Books
Show business is collegial. Whether you’re an actor in a play or the AD on a film production you are part of a team with a specific goal. Everyone is focused on the objective, striving to do their best and the collegiality is centered on that particular project. There’s a lot of talk, joking, kidding around and general camaraderie but conversation rarely, in my experience, strayed far from the work at hand. Although there was a bond and the closeness of shared effort, the working-friend type relationships had their limitations. I could name a score of folks who I absolutely loved working with and counted among my favorite people and didn’t even know if they had a sister or brother. I never recall talking politics and discussions of literature and musical tastes were extremely rare. If you consider a human being as a circle, we knew one another intimately in a 25 to 30 degree arc and the other 330 to 335 degrees were a total mystery.
My wife Elizabeth used to chide me from time to time about spending a lot of time on Facebook. I explained to her that I found FB to be analogous to hanging out with pals at a corner bar and talking about stuff as friends do, without the beer and dart games.
Another thing I’ve noticed is that after using Facebook for a while you get to the point where you know which of your friends (actual and/or FB) posted something just by the headline or the graphic. If it’s a picture of an Eastern Holy Man: Jack L, an antique motorcycle: either Rob N or Jack C, a sad looking homeless dog: Mila, Texas music scene: Byron L, a philosophical quote: Suzy. I can go on and on but you all know what I mean.
I’m tempted to name more names here in extolling the wonders of what I’ve learned about dozens of my former colleagues but I’d be sure to leave out a few so I’ll simply say, “Thank you Facebook for enabling us to get to know one another in a much more complete way that would have been possible without you.”
If you’re not on Facebook I encourage to give it a try. And send me a friend request.
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