1 In Writer's Life/ Thoughts & Observations

Social Media Angst – Guarding the Gate

Social media is pretty damned cool.

Thanks to connections with mutual friends, I’ve found long lost friends I’d given up on seeing again. Just a few weeks ago, I got a friend request from someone who’d been a super dear friend in my trying high school years.

At first I thought, “Who is this person?” because the married name threw me for a loop. But then the rest of her name registered and I literally giggled.

How cool! Getting to reacquaint myself with people I’d though long-gone from my life without the dreaded high school reunion!  (No, hell no, I’m not going to my high school reunions. High school was torturous enough the first time around. I’m not volunteering for round two–or three, or four.)

On the flip side of reconnecting with old friends, are all the new people I’m meeting. Some of them are genuine–new friends met through family or my writing pursuits. Others are…well, acquaintances. A friend of a friend sends a friend request and I accept. That’s the nice, polite thing to do, right? Even if I don’t really know them.

And then there are the “likes.” Businesses hit you up all the time:

Like/tweet/follow our page and you’ll get X% off your next purchase.

Yep, I fall right in. As a result, my news feed now looks more like the stack of sales circulars that come in the Sunday morning newspaper. I’ll scroll for five or ten minutes before I ferret out anything from the people that are near and dear to me. Yesterday I found out one of my very best friends, TD Hart, put out a call for beta readers on her latest mystery/thriller and I totally missed it.

Why?

Because I didn’t really have a connection with the people sending the bulk of the information. 

That’s not to say I shouldn’t Like pages. There are some ads/writer announcements I actively watch for. Favorite authors when they announce a new release, or the special of the day at Blue Rose.

Me thinks I need to clean house.

I miss the days when I could scroll slowly through my news feed, enjoying most of what I was shown. Not scanning past irrelevant stuff.

I miss the days of funny memes and quotes that speak to my heart…and, of course, the drool-worthy man candy. I will always stop and savor those. (Unless my boss is near my cube. That happened once. Awkward.)

Does this bother anyone else? Or are you better at “guarding the social media gates” upfront? What appeals to you the most on your news feed? What makes you stop scrolling? What articles make you click and read more?

Any social media angst you have to share?

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1 Comment

  • Reply
    CJ Burright
    July 18, 2014 at 4:33 pm

    Yep, I always appreciate the man candy too. Although, I admit I miss a lot of stuff going on all the social media fronts since I’m not on them very often. I never “like” any business pages (other than my favorite rock band and the Seattle Mariners), so I don’t get all the buy, buy, buy me posts.

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