in Social Media, Uncategorized 660 Words

Left in the Dust by Social Media

Photo by Wynand Uys on Unsplash

I’ve blogged before about my love/hate relationship with social media. Most of the forms of social media take me out of my comfort zone. Actually, that is an understatement.

Blogging

I enjoy blogging and interacting with people who read my posts. I follow a lot of blogs and have benefited from them. I learn from them, I’m inspired by them, and I’m entertained by them. 

Facebook

Facebook comes in a distant second place. I really don’t need to see a picture of what you ate for breakfast. The most redeeming qualities of Facebook are that it gives me an easy way to stay in touch with friends in Europe and family around the United States, and it gives me a way to know the political leanings of some of my Facebook friends so I’ll know what I can or cannot say to them in order to keep them as friends.

The down side is that I’ve learned things I wish I hadn’t about some of my friends. Suffice it to say, if the topic of politics is going to come up at my next high school reunion or family gathering, I don’t want to be there.

Pinterest

I like Pinterest, but I haven’t put enough time into it to make it a productive platform for my writing. I spend more time on Pinterest than I should, but not necessarily to promote my writing. I pin many articles to my “The Writing Life” board, but I use it more for the hobbies I enjoy.

Twitter

I’m sure this sounds blasphemous to the young adults who might read this post, but I’m not much of a cell phone person. I could really do without it. I refuse to be ruled by a phone. I don’t want to be tied to a phone. I don’t want a phone to monopolize my time, energy, or attention. I want a phone available for emergencies – and I mean the old-timey understanding of what an emergency is.

Instagram

I set up an account a couple of years ago and never took the next step. Again, it’s related to my cell phone and its built-in camera. I’m sure it’s convenient for many people. I just don’t get it.

All the Social Media I’ve not heard of

I guess that’s self-explanatory.

Since my last blog post

I’ve had a net gain of 4,550 words to my The Doubloon manuscript, bringing my current word count to 55,400. I get to start on Chapter 14 today. I can’t wait!

Until my next blog post

I hope you have a good book to read. Nothing grabbed my attention last week. I had to return The Irishman’s Daughter, by V.S. Alexander to the public library without finishing it. I’m on the waitlist for it again so I can finish reading it on my Kindle. Part of the problem is how tired my eyes get reading regular size print. On my Kindle I can adjust the font size. This historical novel is set in Ireland during the potato famine.

If you’re a writer, I hope you have productive writing time.

Look for my #TwoForTuesday blog post tomorrow: ­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­“Two Books that Encourage Change.” Thank you for providing the writing prompt, Rae, in “Rae’s Reads and Reviews” blog. Here’s a link to her April 1, 2019 blog post in which she listed all the #TwoForTuesday prompts for the month of April: https://educatednegra.blog/2019/04/. Thank you for reading my blog. You could have spent the last few minutes doing something else, but you chose to read my blog.

In my blog on Monday, April 29, 2019 I’ll explain what triggered today’s rant.

Let’s continue the conversation

What’s your favorite of all the social media? What’s your least favorite? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.

Janet

22 thoughts on “Left in the Dust by Social Media”

  1. Hi Janet 🌷😊
    Like you blogging or writing is my personal favorite although I personally have not been writing lately. I hope to get back on that horse again LOL
    I like Tumbler too. You can be very created on there.
    Other than those two social media, I use the others but not so much. The least favorite thing I cannot stand on Social Media is Trolls and Russian bots. Hateful, mean and totally unpleasant mess.
    I am glad you are working on your manuscript. Can’t wait to read it once it it published. Have a lovely day xx

    Liked by 1 person

  2. Hi Katrina, I always enjoy hearing from you. I have not tried Tumbler. Maybe it deserves a look, though. Like you, I’m sick and tired of all the trolls, etc. You need to get back on that writing horse! It took me a couple of years of quandary before I was able to myself. I’m enjoying my novel’s rewrite … finally. Hoping to finish this rough draft of the whole thing by the end of April. Time will tell. Today’s plans to work on Chapter 14 got shot all to heck when Duke Energy’s crew (3 bucket trucks) showed up un-announced to take an old power pole out of my backyard. (Got a new pole beside it a couple of weeks ago.) The icing on the cake was when one of their bucket trucks got stuck… in my backyard. Took 30 minutes to get it unstuck. What a day! As of a half hour ago, they are FINALLY gone. Of course, another crew has to come to reconnect the underground wire to our outside light. It’s been one crew after another for several months. There’s just no end to the fun around here. Pardon my rant. People think I lead a very quiet life out here in the country. Not! Book club meets tonight, so I need to calm down. LOL! You’re the second blogger who has said they wanted to read my book once it’s published. Yay — that two sales already! LOL! I hope you have a lovely day, too. It’s absolutely beautiful here. The sun is actually shining and the azaleas and irises are blooming. I love it!

    Liked by 1 person

  4. It sounds like a lovely Spring there. Enjoy the rest of your day and of your book club.
    The Duke Energy dog days sound awful. I could never work around all that noise. I hope they didn’t mess up your yard. If they did, they better fix it, the numb-nuts!
    It always good to hear from you too x 😊

    Liked by 1 person

  7. Update. They did the best they could with shovels and a rake. We’ve had so much rain the last six months, we haven’t been able to use the tractor to mow the backyard. No wonder the utility truck got stuck. Some ruts, but not as bad as I thought it would be. The guy on the truck with the ditch witch says he’s waiting for another bucket truck to arrive. (It’s nearly 4:30. What are the odds?) They’re going to reconnect the Duke Energy LED light on the other pole in the side yard. “We won’t tear up anything,” were his last words to me. There are azaleas and a huge rhododendron and numerous dogwoods and massive oak trees between the pole where the power is and the pole where the Duke light is. I should have gotten him to give me, “We won’t tear up anything” in a sworn written notarized statement. I’m just about ready for this day to be over. LOL!

    Liked by 1 person

  9. I’m making do with water and peanut butter crackers. LOL! It’s a good thing I don’t drink! They’re still here. In a few minutes we’ll see if this bucket truck gets stuck where the other one did. My nerves are shot.

    Liked by 1 person

  10. My poor friend😟 Turn on your favorite music 🎶 and pretend the noise is a bad rhythm section to your 🎵! It happens 💁🏻‍♀️ LOL I hope they start packing up. It seems pretty late for them to still be there. 👷🏼‍♂️👷🏼‍♂️👷🏼‍♂️🌳🌺🌸 Here is some luck, to help 🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀 Plus, some of this🙏 wouldn’t hurt either. Take care my friend 🤞🏼xxx

    Liked by 1 person

  11. They’re gone. They only made a few more ruts in our soft yard and broke off a couple of small tree limbs. When it gets dark tonight, we’ll see if that light comes on. I don’t know what the ditch-witch was for, but I was glad it stayed on the truck and out of our yard! Trying to get myself under control now to go to the book club meeting. In the words of Scarlette O’Hara, “Tomorrow is another day.” Thanks for helping me through my strange afternoon, dear friend.

    Liked by 1 person

  13. I go enjoy social Media in keeping up with family and friends. Politics doesn’t bother me, I either choose to read or keep scrolling. St times I post my share of it! Funny how you now have contact with friends from school That you had no contact with in school. Times change – people change.

    Liked by 1 person

  14. Thanks for your comment, Jeanne! It is a good way to keep up with family and friends if they don’t bombard you with stuff 50 times a day. LOL! I do a lot of tongue biting when it comes to some of the political posts I get. I try not to get involved in politics on social media, but sometimes I just can’t help myself.

    Liked by 1 person

  17. The distractions of social media as you know are a big reason why reading books seems obsolete in today’s times. The love of books in your blog can make a difference to stop this trend. Thank you for checking into my blog.

    Liked by 1 person

  18. Thank you so much for your comment! I especially appreciate your saying, “The love of books in your blog can make a difference to stop this trend.” I’ll keep reading your blog, and I hope you’ll keep reading mine. My blog post this coming Monday morning is about the difference in reading a book and listening to a book.

    Like

  19. I’m with you on this one, I would pick FB to keep in touch with friends and family. Although I am on the rest of them I don’t enjoy them at all. It seems to be all about the likes and followers. Very little interacting like we do on our websites.

    Liked by 1 person

  20. Thanks for your comment, Diane. I hope there will be a backlash against social media at least within the writing community. It’s not enough that I have to write and try to perfect the 90,000-word manuscript — I have to also create my online persona and find tens of thousands of followers before I get published? That wasn’t part of my dream of becoming a novelist!

    Liked by 1 person

Leave a comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.