Facebook Tidbits

It seems the facebook page, although not necessarily gaining much visible activity, it seems it may have perhaps led to more traffic on my vyou.com page. Luckily, vyou.com has a link between itself and facebook, so that every reply that is made on vyou appears on facebook, for people to watch. Therefore, everyone who has Samuel Daniel as a ‘friend’ on facebook receive constant updates whenever a new message is replied to.

Most of the original people I have added on Samuel Daniel’s facebook, are also my friends on facebook, and so I could create a greater degree of separation between myself and the character. It seems to have worked in that one of my friends recently said to me that they thought that Samuel Daniel was a cousin of mine. I asked them what they had meant by that, and they had said they thought I was a boy, a feminine looking boy but a boy nonetheless who looked rather similar to me. I have to admit, to receive a response like that from a friend was very inspiring. It made me feel like the project and the character was really coming into his own in that he is able to convince people he is real via facebook and vyou.

Additionally, it seems people have taken a liking to the character on facebook, especially the Jacobean nature of it. Several people have suggested he ‘like’ a group dedicated to Shakespeare, the Globe and other Jacobean-related articles on the website. Similarly, Samuel Daniel has recently been invited to an ‘event’ on facebook which is a production of Shakespeare’s Loves Labours Lost which is to be performed in Brighton at the end of the month. It is funny to think that people are inviting a character to events and becoming his ‘friend’ via the internet. It feels like a different level of character development than that of vyou. Facebook is called ‘the Social Network’ for a reason, and it feels as though Daniel is having a wider sphere to work in when on there. I write occasional status updates for him, and have added a few webcam photos to keep the page active. I am now beginning to rather enjoy playing a character via facebook. I think, perhaps, were I to extend this section of the experiment further I might like to have a person in a similar situation as Daniel to converse and enact with. Similar to that of some of the ‘joke’ profiles and status updates made such as the World War II countries discussion. (As pictured.)

I believe someone to interact with on a similar level could create a wider story and spectrum to play with. There could be a development of a relationship between characters via facebook. Perhaps even, the secondary character could make a vyou, and the two could comment and respond to each other’s replies both on vyou and on the updates on facebook. Such an experiment and extended development would need a greater period of time in which to work in. It would be interesting perhaps to consider, or research such an experiment in the future.