Social Media and Me.

Welcome back to another blog hop, with #OpenBook. Here’s this week’s prompt.

Don’t forget to click the purple button to see what everyone else has to say on this week’s subject. It’s at the end of my post.

Has being on your favourite form of social media taught you anything about writing?

Confession time. I don’t really do much on social media. I used to but I came to realise that it wasn’t really for me. I used to think that, to sell books, I had to be active on every platform.

To build a community of fans, as well as continually posting about my books, I was told that I had to reveal things about my life, answer comments immediately and engage in conversation.

So, I did. Because that was what everyone else was doing.

Although it worked for them, or so they said, over time I came to see that no matter how much time and effort I spent, I never got any more back.

I had the same small group of friends but it never got any bigger.

A lot of my posts had no engagement at all and comments on other posts and group discussions that I made often went unanswered.

Then the trolling started, and that’s where I learned a valuable lesson.

The online world is not like the world of work that I used to inhabit.

In that world, among other things, you were respected for your knowledge. Not only that, differences of opinion were accepted and debated – without losing friendships. Most importantly, if someone said they would do something, they did it.

I do miss that world. The world of social media seems alien and false. It’s a place where I don’t feel welcome, where what I say or write has no worth and I now have no desire to be.

I won’t waste my time trying to engage with the trolls, I never have.

I’ve simply left them to it.

I’ve just about given up trying to fit in online. I only post every now and then and expect nothing back. My feeds are filled with adverts and stuff that doesn’t interest me. I’m not bothered, I feel better and have kept my sanity mostly intact. To be honest, I don’t think I ever sold many books because of my presence on social media. Nor do I feel the need for the validation that comes from having a horde of followers.

But it’s not all gloom and doom.

There has been one positive to come from all this. What I’ve seen and experienced online has helped me to write more realistic bad guys.

What do you think about this week’s subject?

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Until next time.

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