Ready for Your Closeup?

The Artist D

What is a social network and why do we need one?  I come from the days of Internet roots where we built our own web communities and brought people together organically. They didn’t need any social networks to convince them or push us in the faces of admiring fans. People surfed the web back in that day to find gems like me and in turn found each other. It was a lot like reality used to be, too. The online life often mimics offline. You would want to scour down a path hoping to find a new friend, creation or presentation. You didn’t wait for it to come to you. These days everybody is waiting for it to come to them. They want to plug in and have a social experience.

I try my best to work independently on the Internet as far as the things that I do and create. Much like in the offline world I try to seclude myself for the purpose of creation and personal happiness. I spend a lot of time writing blogs, updating my websites and schlepping one of the best digital art magazines the world has ever seen. But sometimes it gets terribly quiet toiling away on what now feels like the outskirts of the Internet. I long to plug back in and soon I find myself scrolling endlessly on Facebook, Tumblr and Twitter.

People live on Facebook during this moment of Internet history. That’s where they go to socialize. It’s the corner bar. Facebook is Internet social life in an instant TV dinner format. No fuss, no muss, just log on and you have friends along with a captured audience. It’s not fake for some people. My contingent of friends actually do more than post cat photos, so I can at least say I’m seeing something intellectual. I can’t hate it entirely as it has gathered the masses in one place where I can find them. At the same time I do wish we could leave the confines of this Facebook and other social networking to head back into the dark untraveled depths of the Internet.

Facebook feeds an addiction for me and I think it feeds a similar addiction for others. With me this addiction is just turned up to a blaring level eleven. (Well, what isn’t with me?) Back in the day I would log on and work on my website trying desperately for people to pay attention to me. I noticed after awhile that if I didn’t get a message through my site or on my guestbook (remember those?) I felt deflated. I was less interested in working on my artwork if nobody was loving me on a daily basis. Hello, My Name is The Artist D and I am an Attention Whore.…

But so are you.

Most people just don’t realize it, but they are how I used to be. It’s just not obvious anymore because we’ve made it easy. You can be an attention whore without even trying! I know this because now when I’m feeling down and nobody is filling my Inbox I just post a photo or a thought to the Facebook wall and within five minutes I have 25 people loving me tirelessly.

And so do you.

You just happen to not live your life thinking you’re a superstar. People have a lot in common with me they just don’t admit it because every emotion, craving, addiction and infatuation in my genetic code is level eleven. You could say people are often modest or less optimistic of their own beings. If you are the average fabulous person chugging along in reality you have convinced yourself that you are existing with everybody else. Some of you even think you’re no better than anybody else. But at the end of the day you log on, post something and in the back of your mind little sparks go off every time a little LIKE comes pouring in.

As Bette Midler once said you’ve got to have friends. And at the end of the day we can say that’s what it is all about. Attention whores and “serial frienders” aside we’re all just dying for a little attention and the social networks of today’s Internet fill that gaping hole. It’s hard to find anything outside of Facebook which is why I can’t seem to quit it. Fifteen years after I started my own website and formed my own online communities I am still my own online community, but Facebook trumps it all. Because Facebook is social overload and nothing but. It’s friends on demand and if none of your friends are up there’s someone on your list you can voyeur over for awhile.

Some days I think about all the things that I’d be doing for naught if it wasn’t for the social networks of today. Yes, I write blogs but who would read them if I didn’t post links on social networking sites? Indeed our magazine is extremely successful but we’d be far less of the size without the reach of Twitter. It’s just plain weird compared to where I’ve come from. I can’t imagine where we’re going.

I’ll stay on my little island and interact with people through the designated portals, but some day I do hope to see it the way it once was. A fun list of bookmarks where on a nightly basis you cast your worries aside and search for new things online. Web rings leading from one to the other until it’s way past your bedtime.

So the next time you’re feeling a little burnt out on the amazing scrolling wall and a little adventurous, I dare you to venture out into the depths. We’re still out here. We’re blogging and designing for you outside of the social zone. Come on, let’s share a pie.

The Artist D is executive editor of Fourculture Magazine. He is also unearthing the underground as host of The Fabulous D Show every Sunday night at 7 PM EST at TheArtistD.com

Tags: Facebook, featured, social network

Category: Transgender Opinion