A Book Of Days - Patti Smith

 A BOOK OF DAYS - PATTI SMITH

I must admit, I was quite a latecomer to social media. I'd had a micro-presence on the Internet for years but that was mainly on specific news websites that would come up if my name was googled. I had opened up a Facebook account years ago but I never went on it, never used it. I never really understood the point of it and could never quite understand what it was for. What I did see, rather, was that it was a time-consuming activity where people seemed to be carving out an online identity that was often the complete opposite of their real life self. Online they presented and depicted themselves as all laughs and jokes and isn't life wonderful when in reality they were miserable buggers who never spoke to anyone, least of all me. Or they would post constant selfies of themselves, or pictures of their pets or of what they've had for dinner, and well, I just couldn't see the point.

In hindsight, I started using social media on moving to a relatively isolated location where my immediate social circle was a lot less than what it had been. I still don't really understand what it's meant to be for though. I haven't got anything to promote (not least myself), I haven't got anything to sell and I'm not interested in creating a social media profile or 'identity'. Admittedly, I can be quite active on there at times but I still don't see any benefits to be gained from it, in fact quite the opposite: I can see the disadvantages of it as in time spent when that time could be put to better use. What I think keeps me on social media nowadays is that I do it mainly for myself, as a way of noting things such as films watched, books read, and of jotting down thoughts or sounding off. I don't really care about numbers of followers and friends and how many 'likes' anything gets. It's not important and in fact is actually quite meaningless.

Which brings us to Patti Smith and her latest book, entitled A Book Of Days. Of all people already in the public eye, Patti is one of the last who might have any need of social media. Her profile is already well-established and her reach already global. It was Patti's daughter who first suggested she should open an Instagram account so as to counter the fraudulent ones posting in Patti's name but more importantly because she thought the medium would suit her. Patti's daughter was right. Her first post was a photo of her hand, with her daughter being her first follower which has now grown to over a million followers.

A Book Of Days is a collection of 366 of Patti's Instagram posts, representing a leap year. Each post is a photograph accompanied by a short caption and is a prime and fine example of social media being put to good use and of it being of some benefit. The benefit it derives is that of inspiration. There are photos of pictures of Patti's heroes such as William Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg, Baudelaire, Gogol, Joan Didion, Jean Luc Godard, Elvis Presley, Jerry Garcia, Jackson Pollock and so on. There are photos of her home, her desk, her books, even her old boots. There are snapshots from her travels, of gravestones, of her family, and of herself. Selfies. There are even pictures of her cat.

'Social media,' Patti writes in her introduction 'in its twisting of democracy, sometimes courts cruelty, reactionary commentary, misinformation and nationalism, but it can also serve us. It's in our hands.'

In Patti's hands she has shown social media can be life affirming and an albeit limited force for good. Who would have thought? Who would have ever guessed? Who would ever have imagined?

John Serpico