June 2010: Why not Facebook?

I have been repeatedly invited to be a “friend” on Facebook and consistently decline the opportunity. The subject came up again at a recent photographers’ retreat in New Jersey with the conversation focused on the wonderful marketing tool it was. Though the discussion was lively and instructional it only served to reinforce my position on Facebook.

Instant Reaction

I am drawn to well thought out ideas and arguments. I read newspapers and magazines and follow many online sources for content about the world around me. Each morning I read the editorials and commentaries in my local newspaper. Liberal or conservative, it doesn’t matter. George Will or Ellen Goodman, with opposing opinions, provide me the opportunity to think outside my box. Both write columns that are intelligent, well researched and thoughtful about their subjects. Facebook seems to approach communication from just the opposite – instant thoughts and instant feedback. For myself, I just don’t think this way. I can’t count the number of times I’ve been in trouble because I reacted instantly, said something I later regretted, praised something that, upon consideration, wasn’t praiseworthy, or condemned something that turned out to be worthwhile. Fortunately, on most of these occasions, I spoke out of turn rather than in writing, which could last forever.

My perception of Facebook is that frequency of updates is the attraction. People seem disappointed if they aren’t receiving updates all the time and consequently act pressured to provide the same. This is simply not how I work. I use film and a large format camera because it slows me down, physically, mentally and emotionally. Before I could post an image I would need to process the film, make a contact print and then scan and adjust in Photoshop the negative before I could put it up on the internet. Hmm, I wonder why I would even want to do that when I haven’t had time to decide if I even like the image.

Furthermore, and no offense meant, but I’m not particularly interested in sharing the intimacies of my day, my mistakes or my struggles with the rest of the world. I have a wife, a few great friends and a therapist for all that. Being a “friend” to these people is more than enough of a challenge for me!

Time

Another point on which I take issue with Facebook is time. Time spent on Facebook is time not spent doing other things. We all have the same amount of time each day and we’re each free to choose how we spend it. I want to spend my time my way but the demands of self-employment, and being a husband, father, son and friend, often require that I spend it in other ways. I spend some time each day answering email in my office. I can get distracted following links, connecting with friends, answering questions for students. Then there seem to be those time swallowing details of keeping up my website, preparing and debriefing from workshops, preparing exhibits and working on business needs that keep me from photographing or making prints. In order to add Facebook entries into the mix I would have to give something up and I am not willing to do so. I just don’t believe that for the images I make and how I teach and the books I sell that the trade off is worth it to me.

Furthermore, it was suggested that someone other than myself could do these entries. My sons are away at school, can’t afford the assistant and my wife would divorce me if I suggested she might do so. Again, not how any of us are choosing to spend our time.

Privacy

Now for the issue of privacy. If you and I have a conversation about our photographs it is a private conversation between the two of us. Whether it is face to face, over the phone or by email, it is a private conversation about something we both care about. What is said should be of no importance to the rest of the world and I would hope we could be frank, thoughtful and illuminating of each other’s work. Our conversation would be very different if either of us thought the world was listening in. It would become a conversation where the audience was our major concern rather than the work we both care about.

Credibility

In any forum, particularly online forums where everyone is using a “handle” or “screen name” there is little determination for credibility. People who know nothing or very little about a subject can sound highly authoritative. If someone is posting a review or comment on your work how do you know who he or she are, what his or her experience or training is? Do they have the gravitas to speak on the subject? Have they thought about photography or your work? Do they care about your work or are they just looking for something to say? Should you care about what they are saying?

Interconnectivity

Facebook searches the web looking for people who share the same background, experiences, likes and dislikes and connects the dots so to speak. It allows people to get in touch with each other. This broadened exposure is a seemingly good reason to be on Facebook. However, if anyone wants to find me, all they have to do is Google “Tillman Crane” and there I am. On the other hand I can’t stop Google from bringing up my name but it doesn’t (I don’t think) “listen in” on my email conversations, sell my likes and dislikes, or own the images I put up on my website. Facebook “owns” and can use for its own purposes any images I put up on its network.

In summary, if you want to have a conversation about photography, yours or mine, get in touch with me and I will take it seriously. It will be a private conversation, not open to audience participation. Any work I put on my website or in my books or in an exhibit you can know that I have deliberately edited and carefully presented. It is the best I can offer at that point in time. I hope that when I post a new Musing that, like George Will or Ellen Goodman, that it is worth the time it takes for you to read it. At the very least I will do my best to think it though and write it as best I can. You may agree or disagree, or it simply may not speak to you, but I hope you won’t feel you wasted your time reading it.

Facebook may be the greatest social networking creation ever but I choose not to be a part of it. However, if you are and want to share my work with others then please direct them to my web site at www.tillmancrane.com or have them send me an email at tillman@tillmancrane.com. Or call us 207-230-0199. We make the time to answer the phone and return an email. You may even get a letter from us. If I don’t answer right away it’s because I am, hopefully, out making photographs or in the darkroom printing. I am doing what I am passionate about. And so, I hope, are you.

Tillman