An Unpopular Opinion Of Social Media & The Cyber World -or- 3 Days Without Screens
My partner in all things, Carol Lempert & I recently spent 3 days without screens of ANY kind, so...
No cel phones
No computers
No TV or movies
No e-mail
And especially… No social media.
I came to a surprising conclusion. Social media has a powerful and positive place in giving many of us a voice and representation in society. I missed a lot my cyber-friends. I have friendships with people that I rarely see in real life, that I absolutely cherish online.
It might be an introvert/extrovert kind of thing. A number of years ago I took the Myers-Briggs test (however you might feel about that) and I came up pretty deep on the introvert scale. The only person who wasn’t surprised by this... was me. My extroverted public persona is a learned behavior.
It’s also exhausting.
Improv for me is an intimate conversation between myself and my partners with the audience looking on like a fly on the wall. When I'm hosting, or doing stand-up, I feel about the audience as if they are a single person, and again, our one-on-one conversation is private and intimate.
Comedy writing is one of my favorite activities in the world. I can think of nothing better than alone-time with my keyboard to make the funny. Time in the writers’ room has always been a form of gladiatorial battle for me. I get ideas, I give ideas but the real work happens alone.
Ok, ok! I’ll make my point... social media is a great method of communication for introverts who love improv & writing.
I love sending my stupid little jokes out there and more than that, I love it when my friends Yes-And my posts and a conversation starts.
So to my friends who are, like me...
Introverts (and secret introverts),
The socially awkward (even if you fake it well),
Deep thinkers & slow talkers,
The weird, the silly and those of us who can’t write their first thoughts or reactions, because they’re too damned strange and need to be edited for human consumption,
... to you my friends I say, "I missed you!"
