To be completely honest, I am getting more and more twitchy about being online. I don't like seeing carefully chosen advertisements from words in my e-mails and in what I have "liked" on facebook. A case in point is The Little Prince. I love this book: it moves me almost to tears every time I read it. So I said I liked it on Facebook and now I have a feed full of items with "Little Prince" on them that I will presumably want to buy. There is a music box, a duvet cover with matching pillow slip, a watch and endless other things that clearly (?) have equal importance to me as my friends' news as it all streams over the same page.Facebook even looks different: now I have a timeline with a cute little cube with pictures of my friends and a list of places I have studied or lived in the past. I can practically feel the marketers and other creepy people who follow your every move closing in...(I have just caught up on my friend Zoe's blog: she (rightly) complains that white people love to panic. This is me, panicking. But I suppose if I (kind of) know I'm panicking? Then...)
But I have missed seeing everyone's faces: Amy wandering around London in all her fabulousness; Indra and Thomas smiling out at me from Belgium; all the music department people in their graduation gowns and smiles; and Beatrice with her husband-to-be (nine more days today!) celebrating Easter in typically wacky fashion (picture the chocolate rabbits peering over the rocks towards a waterfall).
I could go off facebook, but then I would expect everyone to...send me letters? Call me from overseas? E-mailing is difficult enough. I do savour an old-fashioned e-mail myself, but not everyone has the gift (or curse) of the endless words that flow from my fingers once I get writing. I would miss you all too much.
So despite my paranoia about people being able to follow my every move (catch me "tagging in" somewhere I go!) I will stay here, in this online space.
Hello everyone! It's great to see you all again.
