“Congratulations!” read the automated email message. “You are now friends with Skyla!”

Well, that IS good news, since I think Skyla is awesome, although I don’t actually know her. She was the art director/majordomo on the Nothing But Red project, to which I was a contributor. This email came from Goodreads, which my sister urged me to join, so that we could see what we were reading. Sadly, I read slowly these days, my commute time clogged by podcasts (This American Life, Planet Money, learnfrenchbypodcast.com, The Moth) and my “leisure reading time” seems to be focused on other people’s blogs, including Head Butler, which always succeeds in making me feel ignorant, out of it, and poorly read.

So, I am slow on Goodreads, although I have rather quickly garnered five friends! My sister, of course, who initially invited me, and my best friend’s teenage daughter (hola, Carmen!) who just graduated from high school (congrats, Carmen!) and her best friend, Malyssa (congrats, Malyssa!) who I have met only once, and my friend Paul, who is a Scot and has a reading list heavily dominated by Scottish writers, and now Skyla Dawn Cameron. Skyla lives in southern Ontario, and as a child I used to visit southern Ontario in the summer, as my grandmother Gigi had a cottage there (in Grand Bend, Skyla) but otherwise, we have little to base our friendship on, except for a love of reading. And vampires.

I am not on Facebook.

Odd. Though I can reveal to you all the painful intimacies of my teenage crush on Alex Logan (not his real name, BTW), I feel that Facebook is an invasion of privacy. And believe me, I have been pressured to join. I think, at least once a week.

I am on linkedin, where I enjoy a dual identity as those I am linkedin to are either law firm employees or actors. I rarely refuse an invitation to “link in” except when I am CONVINCED that they have the wrong Elizabeth Frank. Even then, I would accept their offer of friendship, or “linking in” except that this would lead to confusion and almost certain disappointment. I have been saddened on the few occasions when my invitation to “link” was not accepted – very few, and indeed, why? Once I have been “linked,” I do absolutely nothing about it. My profile is not complete; I am a cyber-schizo, with half my artistic life and half my dayjob life; I don’t know how to recommend people or ask for their recommendations. I just like to see the number go up. Friends!

posted by Elizabeth at 9:07 PM