As a writer, I write the stories that I would like to read. In my former job as an art critic, I wrote about the shows that I would have made if I had some visual talents. On Facebook and Twitter, I post stories that I would like to read – and hopefully others with similar interest will enjoy. In the online world of iEverything and me-centric filter bubbles, the virtual world can start to feel like a personal museum of mirrors. And thanks to Intel’s The Museum of Me, it actually is.
But back to you for a minute.
Your Museum of Me is a white structure located in an unidentified utopia space far beyond city limits. There’s a green open field, a shallow pond and clean white pavement surrounding your incubator-like museum. To enter, just click.
As you walk into the Museum of Me, you will first see the friends you interact with the most. I was relieved to find that the Museum of Me recognizes all Facebook friendships, even my relations with a character (can you guess who?) who is not actually a real person.
Museum browsers in the Museum of Me admire the photos of Facebook friends you interact with the most, gazing at them and perhaps thinking to themselves “what does it all mean?”
The next room is all about the photos you have uploaded, which give a nice visual overlay of the types of images you post to Facebook. If these same images were in your home, would you put them up on your wall? Would you “like” or like them? Or is this a gallery meant only for your Facebook friends?
Wander into the next room, a darkened space lit only by bright white words that represent the text that appears the most on your wall. This serves as a good reminder of the large amount of text that we all post to Facebook. At times, the text itself feels obliterated by the dump of visual imagery in the news feed, thanks in part to bigger photos in the Facebook news feed.
In the room of My Likes, the Museum of Me finally takes the focus off of you and shifts it to the items you like that others across the world also like. In my Museum of Me, the viral video “Shit White Girls Say…To Black Girls” is the item I shared and liked that most other Facebook users also appreciated.
The Museum of Me exhibition takes place at the exact time, place and location (Intel knows your latitude and longitude) that you do it.
Since it was built before Timeline came out, the Museum does not incorporate your cover photo – it only features your Facebook profile photo.
When Facebook launched Timeline the other month, I decided not to upload my “past life events” because I didn’t think it was necessary to provide Facebook with even more information about me.
What I didn’t think of was a virtual “museum of me,” culled entirely from photos, videos, links and status updates from my Facebook account.
Besides, would you rather be a museum of your self-curated self on Facebook, or a visual album of your “Facebook life”?
