I’m not anti-social, but I am becoming more and more anti-social-media. It’s definitely an “It’s complicated” relationship.
We’ve been hearing about the perils and pitfalls of social media for years now, and yet…
I still have a Facebook account and author pages. It’s where I tend to connect with family and other people I know IRL.
I’m also on Instagram and by association, Threads. I like to post pics of the dogs or flowers or my cute grandsons, but my feed on Instagram is now mostly ads, inspirational memes, and videos reposted from TikTok. The impermanence of Stories just makes me sad.
I had high hopes for Threads because I miss engaging with other in the author community, but its taking what now seems to be the inevitable turn. Why can’t we have nice things?
Scrolling TikTok left me annoyed by the amount of time I’ve wasted, so I deleted it. I’m also one of those people who hated watching people stage fake oopsie-daisies on America’s Favorite Home Videos, so… Not my thing.
Once upon a time, I signed up for a LinkedIn account, but I don’t use it. Nor do I consider it social media.
I cut ties with The App Formerly Known as Twitter in 2019. What a cesspool.
But authors are encouraged to be everywhere.
They say we never know where we’re going to find our next avid reader, so we cast our nets wide. We ask engaging questions, post endless game memes, and generally do things that don’t suit our personalities on the off chance we might reach new readers. I have watched people I know personally create a whole new “author personna” for social media, and I’m telling you, it’s freaky.
I just…can’t. It’s exhausting. I’d rather be writing.
I’ll keep my accounts, of course, but I am going to curate them more. Some I’ll use purely for book-related promotion, others for more personal reasons. But I’m not going to do the thing where I post to social media to let people know I won’t be posting to social media, though.
Links to blog posts and newsletters will auto-post to some accounts, but if you’re looking for me, you can always find me here.