I’m a storyteller. I love weaving a yarn, on the pages of a magazine, or over coffee with a friend. But today’s constant flow of information makes it hard to get the drop on a juicy tale, and that goes for good gossip as well as hard news. I find myself constantly scooped, even among friends and family.
Here, in brief, storytelling in the Facebook age:
Person 1: I was at Jason’s wedding this weekend.
Person 2: I know.
Person 1: Oh. Well, it was a beautiful wedding.
Person 2: Yeah, I saw the pictures
Person 1: I didn’t know you were friends.
Person 2: We’re not.
Person 1: But you saw pictures?
Person 2: You looked fat.
Person 1: Hey, my college friend Rachel had a baby!
Person 2: Is it a boy or a girl?
Person 1: Oh man, I don’t even know!
Person 2: It’s a boy. Get on Facebook.
Person 1: Big news! I called to tell you I–
Person 2: I know.
And they all lived virtually ever after. The end.
No Happy Medium 