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Theory on the Update

Virginia Heffernan, in her New York Times column Being There, writes:

“My friend Lizzie, who is an actual poet, is a terrific, prolific updater. Her updates are often the kind of lyrical blast — T. S. Eliot’s “HURRY UP PLEASE IT’S TIME” was a recent post — that might get stuck in your head with no place to go. Sure enough, she has a great theory of the update, which she explained to me in a note on Facebook:

‘Unlike ALL other walks of life, status updates are the appropriate places for spontaneous bursts of joy and being. You shouldn’t do it at work, you shouldn’t do it in the middle of a conversation, you shouldn’t do it on the street, you shouldn’t turn to a stranger on the bus, you shouldn’t leave it on someone’s cellphone. But on this grand constantly updating Christmas card that we are all free to access or withdraw from at any time, we FINALLY have a polite space for My sponge smells like a hot dog.’

Spontaneous bursts of being: perfect.

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