Anti-Social Network
Inspiration: A.S. Patric’s Q & Q
The new
Oxford-American
dictionary
has announced
its word
of the year
for 2009
is
‘unfriend’.
‘Love’ has long been forgotten,
‘Touch’ is now irrelevant,
‘Smile’, ‘Hope’, ‘Peace’, ‘Praise’,
rendered to dusty print books
locked in open shelves
for all and none to see.
LMAO txt speak has won.
I am justified in my existence,
I facebook, therefore I am,
twitter ergo sum.
We have created our own Big Brother,
Split our own personalities,
Online identities,
Post.
Categories: Poem
The new
Oxford-American
dictionary
has announced
its word
of the year
for 2009
is
‘unfriend’.
this i love
(English question – ‘Love’ has long been forgotten – should not be been long forgotten? why? thanks)
i facebook ? a new verb? i google, i wiki? and the word for 2009 is unfriend… classics.
Thanks Dhyan, glad you like it, sad that ‘unfriend’ is so popular to make it as word of the year. I’m afraid I cannot answer your English question, I pretentiously post under the banner of ‘poet’ and as such, have a total disregard for gramattical rules!
I like the breaking down of the personality fragments that constitute a modern identity in this poem, Mark. —> I was reading the blurb to Tony Birch’s new collection of stories and it says he’s writing about people connecting or failing to connect, and I thought, great, but that’s kind of what we’re all writing about, isn’t it? So another thing I like about your poem, is the way you reach for those old world virtues and juxtapose them; but then I’m thinking, even if we go back to the village green, we’d still be thinking about the human disconnect. It’s just a different set of wires to get crossed. Best thing about this poem, for me, is the connection made between my poem and yours. Thanks for that Mark.
It was an honour to link to your’s Alec. Connections have varied throughout time, was Aristotle connected? I guess it’s what you do with the communication channels available to you. These are strange times in which we live, I was walking out of a restaurant the other day and pointed out to my wife, a table with four adults and four children, the adults were speaking, each of the four kids had handheld game consoles!
and as such, have a total disregard for gramattical rules! – that is better answer than anything i could ask for..
happy to “help”
I’ve often thought that I might have an anti-social personality disorder (ie. sociopath) but to also have an anti-social network – now that’s pretty cool. Actually your title is good, playing off the ’social networking’ stuff. This is brilliant Mark and something I think about quite a bit – splitting our personalities and our lives (on-line and real lives). The last line is great – ‘post’.
We can get snowed under all our online connections, but it does open up lines that could not have otherwise been opened, I like the blog network, like a virtual writing group, just have to be careful it doesn’t become the reason instead of the avenue for promotion / support / criticism.
Outstanding, Mark – once again, made me smile there. ‘Post’ is a superb ending too – you know, the ‘posting as you type ‘post’ in a post’ superb!
Must jump over to read Alec’s post!
Thanks Ashley, I like the insight; ‘post’ looping around on itself. Alec’s post is much better, he has explored the disconnect much deeper and has put it into a form that flows and drills to the core of the “problem”.
Hi. I love the notion of having split our own personalities. How true in this age of online realtionships and communities. It is certainly a delicate balance between supporting the online forum for sharing and communicating…and allowing it to support you ! Great blog by the way, I’ll be back.
Thanks Colleen, ’tis indeed a tangled world wide web we weave.
Bravo Mark! I heard this last week and it saddened me. Thanks for writing this, I feel better knowing I’m not alone in my dorkiness and social media ineptitude.
Thanks Danielle, you are certainly not alone in social media ineptitude, I think social ‘dorks’ could start a network of their own!