Original Face or Facebook?

photo by taradharma

Jackie Greene, one of my favorite musical artists, posts about his concerns with social media and our addiction to it, especially its impact on kids and teenagers.  I encourage you to read the whole thing.  I can't imagine being young today with social media...and video games, and the oppressive prevalence of popular culture/celebrity.

I've been getting teased by a few friends lately about how frequently I post on facebook.  I do love my facebook life, but Mr. Greene's post has really struck a nerve deep down inside of me.  I've been blogging for six years and have been on facebook for a couple of years.  I've met some wonderful people through my on-line presence -- hell, I met my girlfriend through blogging six years ago!  How wonderful is that?  I felt as if I knew her very well.  Her writing was smart, funny, heartfelt and provocative.  It could have merely been a manifestation of her on-line self, but as it turned out her writing was honest and a true reflection of many parts of her being.  I fell in big time like through reading her posts.

Social media, like everything else, can be used for good or evil.  I say evil because some kids and teens are horrendously bullied through social media.  Some have committed suicide because of on-line harassment.  And a lesser evil, insidious, is the tethering of one's life experience to one's on-line presence.  Okay, "one" being me.  If I don't blog or facebook about it, who will know I experienced it? 

I will, of course.

I know that my internet persona and expression has become exceedingly important to me when I acknowledge that the idea of giving it up sends me into a panic.  What is the result of this -- let me be honest -- addiction?  Or, put more compassionately and gently, perhaps my on-line expression is an extension of my life-long desire to express through writing, music and photography.

Can we really experience and cultivate our Original Face* on the Internet?  The answer is: I don't know.  But I am thinking about it.







*A term used in Buddhdism to refer to an individual's true nature in the sense of the true identity, or ‘face’, which lies behind the ever-changing, evanescent procession of identities that one takes from life to life.