Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Just Like Me, Already

It's not that I am anti-technology -- computers and email and the Internet have been amazing for writers -- it's that I remain wary at our total reliance on and absorption in. I'm kinda in the camp of "The machines are controlling their creators". Computers and email and the Internet also have created new places of hell for writers as well as teenagers and anyone who makes somebody mad.
Because agents and publishers expect writers to be using social media, I created a public Facebook page to promote myself. I refuse to use Twitter and I don't really see the point of Pinterest except to steal people's ideas without crediting them. All the other stuff out there I pay no attention to. Seriously -- a new online service that lets people post 36 second videos of themselves? No surprise the first users are celebrities. Besides, if I'm to write 1,000 words a day, I don't have time to be pinning and liking and oogling. My priorities make me a dinosaur in this Wifi world, don't they?
My Facebook experience is now three months along (That's the first make it or break it mark for relationships, you know. Three months is the point when you know -- if you're honest with yourself -- whether you want to get more serious with a person). It's hard not to become obsessed by the Likes. A writer creates and publishes in relative obscurity; we write by ourselves and usually receive little feedback on our work so Facebook could be a way to connect with readers. For the most part, people seem more interested in photographs than thoughts.
I was delighted to find this news story on my news feed today: "Is Facebook Envy Making You Miserable?"


By Belinda Goldsmith
LONDON (Reuters) - Witnessing friends' vacations, love lives and work successes on Facebook can cause envy and trigger feelings of misery and loneliness, according to German researchers.
A study conducted jointly by two German universities found rampant envy on Facebook, the world's largest social network that now has over one billion users and has produced an unprecedented platform for social comparison.
The researchers found that one in three people felt worse after visiting the site and more dissatisfied with their lives, while people who browsed without contributing were affected the most.
Read the rest of the article with this link....

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