Facebook and the Inner Soul

Two comics today!

Full Size Image HEAH

I'm not claiming that everyone in the world goes home and cradles themselves because of a yawning, bottomless void of self-doubt haunting their subconscious. I'm just saying that people, all people, experience insecurity from time to time.

Every once in a while when I read a biography, listen to an interview, or read a great comic (http://boxbrown.com/?p=733) I realize that those little pangs of "What the hell are you doing" aren't something that I alone experience. For a long time I believed that I was the only one to feel that way. But these days I realize that it's a part of the human condition! I see it in biographies of history's greatest and in those friends of mine who I thought were forces of nature but who have breakdowns just like every other common man.

That's why it's awesome that we're all insecure. Because it makes being insecure less of a lonely thing.

This comic is a little out of order because I have another story arc going on, but I wanted to get it in there. Also, those people in the comic are on a train... I'm not sure that came across.

Next!

Full Size Image M'YAH

Ah... topical humor. 60 years from now when we are all part of the Hivemind this comic about "internet" humor will make no sense whatsoever.

Facebook does make it very, very difficult for you to permanently deactivate your account. Even if you quit, all the data remains on Facebook and can easily be reactivated. Facebook blocks online services that remove all of your friend information and change your password/email combo. DEAD PEOPLE have trouble getting their accounts taken offline. This is because Facebook makes its money by selling data about its users, and is loathe to allow people to take away this data. Also, Facebook hates dead people.

It's not too sinister if you're ok with the idea of a free exchange of information... but it is a little disturbing if you weren't aware of how much of your personal information actually belongs to Facebook, not you.

I just think it's funny to consider Facebook, not as a greedy company trying to stop you from deleting its money-making resource, but as a Good Samaritan trying to stop you from doing the unthinkable and *gasp* engaging with the real world.

First use of color in a Repiphany! strip, by the way.

Peace!

Derek

Technology Curve

Full Size Image Here.

I haven't updated Repiphany! in such a long time! Here is strip #16 - This Will Be Us Someday. I have to credit Jason Potteiger for the inspiration - it comes from deep discussion he and I fell into the other day as to how our generation is adhering to the technology curve. Or rather, from his point of view, how it isn't.

It's an interesting perspective. Most of us young 20-somethings use Facebook on a daily basis, but sometimes it seems as though we're starting to drop off using the new websites as they arrive. Twitter, LinkedIn... I know I don't use them, or really even know what they do. I imagine that as I grow older I'll slide even further into my groove of comfortable products, adopting new technologies every now and then but in no way keeping with the exponential growth of the new market. Flash forward forty years - I see myself trying to bond with my son through a friendly videogame. I gesture at the now-archaic Xbox 360 and he responds with a giggle. I decide to play his games and eventually end up baffled by an immersive reality simulator. Eventually I sigh and exit the world as my laughing son redesigns the laws of physics.

Ah well. I've made plenty of fun of my father for not using Firefox plugins. Getting ridiculed by my future cyborg child sounds like my just reward!

In other news, I mentioned a few posts ago that I've been working on a game idea. I've dubbed the game Project Ascent until I can come up with an appropriate title. As a teaser, here is the sketch that lead to the game idea (click on the image for fullsize). More to follow in the coming weeks as I finish up the story board for Stage One.