Social and Anti-Social Media

Social media has been one of the themes of my week so far. It all started on Sunday, when I attended a workshop on the subject at my writers' group. The whole question of what kind of web-presence I want, what content would be advisable, and how much time I need to spend on this is looming large because of the fact that my novel will be coming out next spring. Current wisdom is that authors need to be spinning their webs in cyber space.

Then yesterday I heard a fascinating program on the radio as I was driving. The guy being interviewed was obviously hot stuff when it came to the latest 'in' vehicles for connecting with audience, communicating, and generally putting yourself out there. To my surprise, he classified email as 'so 90s'!

But he said, not to ignore it because the trouble with blogs, Facebook and Twitter is that it's conceivable to lose everything you've written, all your contacts, and therefore all the time you've invested. He also suggested email messages should be confined to three sentences. Hmm. I guess he doesn't know what long sentences I can write, especially if I put my mind to it!

I actually signed up for Facebook very early on, but only starting posting a few years ago. And generally my 'friends' consist of family. (I'm glad they're my friends when you think of that saying as to choosing your friends but not your relations!) But now I also have an author page. Not that there's anything really up there, but maybe this time next year I'll get it going.

My being late to the party is likely to continue. I mean, who except for those working on the cyber-edge, and teenagers, can keep up? Do I even want to? (don't answer that.)

I enjoy blogging the most, I think. Being generally long-winded when I write, Twitter is not fantastic for me, and neither is Facebook, although I 'like' and 'comment' fairly often. Feeling connected is special, that's true. On the other hand, when I'm being social on-line, it means I'm not sharing face time with my husband, even if we're sitting opposite each other, both busy with our lap-tops!