@hg47's Blog: The Tweet & The TakeAway - Posts Tagged "social-media"

The Internet has little to do with transmitting Truth, but is more about inoculating people against the harmful effects of the Truth

Television and Radio are PUSH: Program Directors and Editors and Media Experts determine what you will see and hear.

The Internet is PULL! You choose which links to click on. You decide which news titles and links interest you enough to read the article. You Pull in only the information that pleases you.

You choose which social media sites to spend your time on. Friending and Following is easy: you see and read what your "online friends" show you, what they have to share. When an "online friend" disturbs you by showing you something you don't like, they are "unfriended" with the click of a mouse. If they really piss you off, you can BLOCK them, report them as SPAM, or otherwise try to get them kicked off the site: "No one should have to see such crap! Nobody should have to listen to that nonsense!"

It's the Birds-Of-A-Feather-Flock-Together syndrome gone global. The Internet coddles and pampers us by reinforcing our prejudices, isolating us into pockets of unreal fantasy virtual interactive environs where everyone we encounter thinks like we do! Heaven!

Or, from another perspective, Hell, as the Net becomes less a tool to cope with REAL 3D LIFE and expand our options in REAL 3D LIFE. Nope. The Net is now the ultimate escape from REAL 3D LIFE.

And coming soon to a Net near you: 3D!

@hg47

Karen Anderson of Writer Way answered one of my test emails to her with a lengthy response of very specific advice for writers, about a year ago. Half her reply was about setting up my own professional writer's website before promoting anything, and detailed notes on exactly what she meant by that.

Possibly she was just selling me her services.

But what she wrote next was pretty much a complete rejection of social media:

2. Become a member of good writers organization[s]: SFWA if you write science fiction, MWA if you write mysteries - you get the idea. Attend their events and workshops and do some volunteer work for them. Mention that on your website.

3. Volunteer to be a panelist at conventions for writers or readers. That will get your name on their websites, which will help your social media rank more than dozens of tweets and blog posts.

4. Ignore social media time-wasters like Twitter and spend your time taking writing workshops, finding mentors, and writing new publishable material. It's real-world, genuine connections with other writers, editors, reviewers, and bookstore owners that make the difference for writers. The social media stuff is about as valuable as spending your day staring in the mirror.

Perhaps Karen Anderson was just spewing boilerplate to get rid of a pest in her INBOX, but if so she has some damn good boilerplate! And I'm starting to think it is truer than true.

@hg47