Talk:Mitch Kuchenberg

Kuch,

As your next door neighbor I am offended that you didn't invite me to the open bar. That said, I really liked how you used the funeral angle for the autobiographical statement. I thought the concept of your Facebook avatar dying raised interesting thoughts and ideas about how people judge somebody based on a Facebook profile if they don't really know the person and what the benefits and consequences of that are. I was particularly fond of how you associated Facebook use with a form of hypochondria and how your statement seemed to communicate that Facebook was hindering your offline social interactions instead of augmenting them (as I think most people assume it does). If I could change one thing about the piece I would trim the intro/set-up. It took a long time for the piece to turn autobiographical and while your language and creative writing were rather enjoyable, I think that some of that space could have been used for deeper self-inspection (use of groups, messages, wall posts for example). It also might have been nice to have one more "speaker" at the funeral in order to provide more perspective about what outside viewers may glean about your personality via your Facebook profile. I also thought it would be interesting/funny if one of your actual friends showed up at the funeral and recognized you or the name swap. I thought your ending did a really nice job wrapping the piece up with thought and humor. It certainly raised questions about whether or not having a Facebook (or how one uses a Facebook) affects one's social life and identity. One thing I wish you would have touched on was what benefits or enjoyment you get out of Facebook. The piece seemed mostly dystopian with regards to Facebook and I'm wondering if there's any reason you log on? Overall it was a thought-provoking, enjoyable and humorous piece. Kudos for the creativity.

-Your neighbor