Facebook Has Made Us All Busybodies

So, for the sake of not being a hypocrite and not making everyone angry with me, I’ll start out with the obvious fact that I use Facebook (sometimes too much). I think there are a lot of great things about it.

But, now that the disclaimer is over, here’s something else to think about: we have instant easy access to a whole lot of information about others makes it easier for us to nose around where we aren’t wanted.

You know the old stereotype of the old woman who sits on her porch knitting, bespeckled eyes trained on the small town goings-on so she can always be ready with the latest gossip? (I’m thinking of Rachel Lynde, for all you Anne of Green Gables fans.) That old lady was the only one in town who really could be an effective busybody because she was the only one with the time to sit around eavesdropping, people-watching, and information-gathering.

Thanks to the Internet, all of us can do that with just a few clicks. Chances are, if I wander over to your Facebook profile, I can know an awful lot about you: what movies you’ve watched, how you vote, what events you’ve been to recently, who would be on your zombie apocalypse team, and what stupid chain letter things you participated in during high school.

And, if I’m feeling like a stalker, I can find out all those things about your mom, your siblings, your roommate, and your boyfriend/girlfriend too.

Thanks to social media, we have an incredible amount of information about people. Sometimes that’s good—Facebook is great for sharing pictures, keeping up with friends who moved away, planning events, etc. But I’d like to claim that Facebook is also really good at making us busybodies.

How to Write Humor

Ask any writer about how to write humor, and the first thing they’ll tell you is that there is no process. There are no rules, no steps you can follow.

Oh yeah? Well, one of the nonexistent rules for writing humor is to do the unexpected. So here are some steps you can follow. I expect a large group of writing experts to send me hate mail now. The rest of you can enjoy.

1. Eavesdrop.

Find funny people. Write down what they say, then figure out why it’s funny. You can do this with friends, of course. But the danger there is that some people are just funny because you know them and share a lot of inside jokes. If a stranger says something you find hilarious, it must be pretty universally funny, because you have no context for it.

One of my favorite eavesdropped conversations took place between two twenty-something guys in the Arts and Crafts section of Walmart. Guy 1: Dude, did you really try to *glue* the button back on? Guy 2 (very defensive): Hey, I don’t sew, okay?

There is, of course, a line for acceptability for when research becomes just being creepy. Check out this quiz to make sure you’re not crossing it.

2. Think like a sixth grader.

This one is for creating funny dialogue in scripts or stories. At my school, the sixth graders always did a musical at the end of the year. There was one role that every single kid wanted to get.

No, it wasn’t the lead. It was the funny character. What kid doesn’t want to get to deliver the punchlines and have the entire school laugh at his jokes? It’s pretty much the definition of cool.

Whenever I write a play or a funny story, I try to picture all of my characters as sixth graders who want that chance to make everyone laugh. Every character can be funny (even accidentally) if you work at it long enough. Spread out the jokes so there’s not just one goofball who gets to have all the fun. This can lighten up tense scenes, make your villain more relatable, and keep certain parts of the story from being crammed with all the humor.

Writer or Creeper?

As writers, we like to think of ourselves as experts on human nature. After all, to write realistic dialogue and create compelling characters, we have to observe the world around us, right?

Well, yes. Sort of. Anyway, it’s a good excuse for some borderline creepy behavior. The following quiz is a tool to help you evaluate your creepy writer habits. Should your score and the resulting diagnosis alarm you, don’t worry: you can change.

I’ll let you know as soon as I find out how.