Facebook Friend, Google + Circle turnarounds, and other soap opera scenarios
Cry your heart out! If you’re a music teacher getting rid of the dead wood instead of inviting an aromatic Christmas pine into your living room to compete with a small space reserved for the cat, then you might as well check your FB Friends list to pine away even more.
A colleague of mine bemoans the turnover in FB Friends, Google+ Circle add-ins, etc. It’s getting too hard to keep up with the lingo and orbiting strangers who touch down on your Circle and overstay their welcome. I have one from the Middle East whom I don’t know from Adam, though Adam, who hooked up with Eve, must have known this area of the world before his downfall. Where was the Garden of Eden, anyway?
It’s certainly not a piano teacher’s seventh heaven.
Are FB and the Circle, by definition, advertising entities, or social networks? Where does one draw the line between self promotion, and amiably “sharing” an art form?
Well, if you make a living at what you do, you must be advertising. Playing the piper’s tune on your own Wall? Wait a minute, what’s wrong with sharing your love for music in your own domain? (NO such luxury, FB owns it) And now You Tube/Google is claiming exclusive copyrights to composers dead over 200 years. Insane or what?
Serenading yourself and a handful of friends on FB is better than selling Viagra through a hyperlink on a page devoted to Bach.
These links are deceptive. You find yourself “LIKING” Debussy’s page, until someone comes along and posts something entirely remote that ends up in your News feed. That individual links to his oil excavations in Alaska. Before you know it, you’re bombarded with rig updates. What about those self-employment ads that pop up, and ruin the ambiance?
By comparison, what’s wrong with posting a Bach Prelude in the ruinous rubble of an unrefined Page devoted to a music Master?
Recently, I found myself at Google Translation, writing a diatribe about the Bach site to some lady Administrator from Italy whose FB profile is replete with links to the cosmetic industry and more. If you become her Friend you’re pledged to some kind of Timeline where nothing in your life past or present is sacred. (I’d rather be accused of advertising, than be a walking advertisement for over-exposure, in a pool, no yet, without a bathing suit.)
I had fun with the Italian, because for all I knew, I could have been experiencing a translation from hell.
Like for example,
My supposed entry in English:
“What’s up with this advertising thing on your Private Bach page? Besides why is Beethoven, Brahms and Chopin linked up when J.S. Bach was promised?”
In Italian it came out as:
“Come ti permetti di pubblicizzare sul mio sito quando non ha niente a che fare con Bach. Questa è una violazione della privacy di Facebook. Vi chiedo di ritirare il proprio nome dal mio Googe più 1 Cerchio perché non so come bloccarlo.”
To my astonishment, here was the literal translation that I compared at another site:
“How dare you advertise on my page when it has nothing to do with Bach. That’s a Facebook infringement of privacy. I am asking you to withdraw your name from my Google plus Circle because I don’t know how to block it.”
No wonder Wars are ignited around the world. Miscommunications on social networks?
So I give up at this point, refusing to post my stuff on any Pages, including my own. It’s too risky.
Like one of my Skyped students of Latina heritage wisely said:
“Those Google Translations have a lot to be desired.”
She’s right. In fact, I’m still waiting for her to approve my FB Friend Request. It’s been months!
It better be done before her three-week vacation to India or I’ll get paranoid. But maybe she’s just over-blogged!!!
As an afterthought, perhaps we shouldn’t be FB friends, because one never knows if a zapping is in the offing. Question is who will do it first and what will happen to piano lessons?
Don’t ever mix business with pleasure, I say. It’s a big No No!!!
Here’s the Spanish translation of the above according to Google:
“Si no se aprueba mi solicitud de amigos, tomar clases de piano están kaput, terminado!”
Check this link to unravel the above mystery.
Just type the line into the box and click ENGLISH.
http://translate.google.com/#it|es|
