Jen Consalvo will share photography techniques with the group. Consalvo is a social media expert, entrepreneur, and photographer. When I organized a social media panel for the DC Web Women, Jen is one of the people I contacted to speak. I’m delighted to have the opportunity to hear her again on another subject.

Those with iPhones or more traditional cameras can bring them to tonight’s event to follow along with her tips and instructions.

More on DC Media Makers (DCMM

Jill Foster has this to say about DCMM:

We’ve been meeting up for about three years now and it’s a fantastic place to learn and have a blast with digital tech. It’s very idea and conversation driven. As in when folks in digital tech present, they are really conversation starters (vs wrapped up in a PowerPoint presentation). At meetups, we talk about what people are working on in digital media (professional projects or those just for fun) — from webcasting, video blogging, mobile media, film and editing software, podcasting. We’re promoting digital literacy in our own way. And we collaborate and make stuff too. Learn, teach each other, have fun, practice the tech, repeat.

You can also find chocolate, and that’s always important.

Learn more at the meetup page for DC Media Makers.

By day six, I no longer missed Facebook. I chatted with friends on this thing called a telephone. Do you remember those? You punch numbers, let it ring, and someone answers on the other end. It’s delightful.

I’ve never been addicted to coffee, but I know someone who has. He periodically gives it up. There’s a withdrawal phase — as with anything addictive — and I went through that phase with avoiding Facebook. However, avoiding Facebook became easier over time. I started to think about it less. Facebok status updates were no longer coursing through my brain waves or sucking up the energy of precious brain cells.

I wrote seven poem drafts this year. That felt good.

I’m finding it interesting to watch these trends and think it would be worth it to test Facebook ads for certain kinds of businesses.

What are your thoughts?

In case you haven’t read the previous posts yet, I decided in December to have a Facebook fast from January 1 to January 15. These dates were slightly arbitrary. I prepared before I “left” Facebook in the following ways:

1. I posted a final update on December 31, 2009 to provide my — it’s crazy, I know — email address. Who uses email anymore anyway, right?

2. I sent messages to a few people to let them know I’d be off line. This fast reminded me there are quite a few people I chat with only over Facebook, so I don’t even have their email addresses.

On January 1, I was still “hearing” updates in my head. I do not want to think in “updates.” It took me a few days to detox, and I’m better now.

Today, I was back to my regular work of SEO, PPC and copywriting. Since I was so busy, it was easy to avoid the Big FB today. I spent the evening reading Francine Prose’s Blue Angel. I drafted a poem.

But wait! In my role as Program Chair for DC Web Women, I had to share news about our upcoming program. We promote via the listserv, via LinkedIn and — you guessed it — via Facebook. Although I could have emailed one of two other administrators to post the news, I did not feel like going through the hassle. Let’s not get silly here. I logged in, posted the note and logged back out. I wondered if anyone “saw” me. Boy, those notifications looked juicy. And what was that message on my Wall? I logged out quickly before I could get sucked in for two hours.

Two hours saved.

Can I do it? Last night, I had a dream — a nightmare? — in which I forgot about the Facebook fast and logged on. I was struck with horror when I saw what I’d done.

By now, the Facebook is leaving my bloodstream. The shakes are over. My mind feels clear.

Today — a Sunday — I rose in the near dark and headed to a coffee shop around 0700 to work on my novel for a blissful 2.5 hours. I woke up early because I went to bed early. I went to bed early, in part, because I was not wasting time on Facebook.

I replaced my Facebook time with real-life events. We met a friend and took our children to a children’s play space in Maryland. I got to pet a bunny named Strawberry, eat pretend ice cream from a play kitchen where the kids were the cooks, and play musical instruments with children.

We went to lunch with another friend. Since we’re still in the market for restaurants that offer crayons, we went to Austin Grill. They do have an amazing grilled corn on the cob. I can’t believe I am recommending this, but they put sprinkles of tart cheese and scallions on the corn. Brilliant. We talked about academia and poetry. Since the latter is a favorite subject, I was in heaven.

“You haven’t even started yet,” said a friend.

I decided to see what my mind would do without the constant distraction of Facebook. Today, I enjoyed a leisurely breakfast with my family and did not spend much time on the web. I even — gasp! — took a nap.

For a person who makes her living on the web, being offline was a big deal. I found it refreshing.

I’ll chronicle what I do each day with my “Facebook time” for the next fourteen days.

With newspapers slowly going down the drain, how much longer will we care what they have to say about books we read on our Kindles? With the increased “niche-ing” of society — and people moving into small and highly selective groupings of people who like highly selective niched works of art — will this list remain relevant?

I read poetry and the poetry niche even has its niches: Language poetry, lyrical poetry, spoken word poetry and so on.

When’s the last time you asked someone what they were reading and you found you were not reading the same thing?

The importance of the best-seller list exists, in part, due to people like you and me. We give it importance so it becomes important in the same way a dollar is worth a dollar because you and I believe that.

This importance comes from positioning. In the same way the Iowa Writer’s Workshop will always be the “number one” place to study creative writing or Harvard will always be the number one school, the New York Times best-seller list will always be number one — at least as long as we believe in it.

I had been thinking about this idea and was reminded of it when I read Seth Godin’s blog last evening. He got to write about a similar subject before I did.

First, how many vendors do you think contacted me?

If you raised your hand to say none, then you are not quite correct. If you said one, then you get the lollipop prize.

In the worst economic climate since the Great Depression – sorry, I had to throw in that overused phrase just for fun — one would think a company would contact a potential client. One would think a company would contact a potential client who is ready to spend money.

Perhaps you are a business owner who contacts potential clients to answer their questions and accept their business. If you do, I can assure you that you’re one step ahead of much of the competition.