Where's your social media links?!

illustration by Paperbeatscisors

So, if you look around here you may notice something is missing… That’s right! I DON’T have social media links any where. How is this possible? How can an author not try and seduce readers on all the popular avenues?

Well, it’s simple really, I just don’t. Many successful authors who do maintain a strong social presence frequently complain that they spend far too much time on social media. And in the business of writing, time spent writing words outside of books is time wasted (like this article, lol).

Sure, I might recoup some of the lost productivity with additional sales via wheeling out a trite social profile, but I don’t feel any enjoyment in talking about myself to all the world. So for me, social media is not only frivolous and wasteful of my creative time, it’s also irritating.

Then, if we move the focus away from me, and towards social media itself we have a number of issues inherent in these systems. First among these issues is control. People who engage on social media sites do not control their content, the site does. People can flag your posts and get them taken down for any arbitrary reason, and you, the creator, must go through hoops to restore said content. Then, there’s the fact that social networks seem to generate outrage on what seems an hourly basis. Anyone is fair game to become the next target in our era’s ‘2 minutes hate’.

Also, if we take a look at social media for a sociological/psychological perspective, then we see that much of what these sites do is encourage self-aggrandizement. The very notion of social media is predicated on the construction of a ‘temple of the self’. It’s the belief that your activities, likes, dislikes, and who you know is somehow important to society at large; that people will come to your gleaming edifice of data because its inherent worth. Well, there is an inherent worth in this information, however, it’s not to our peers; it’s to marketing analytics.

One of the most valuable commodities on the modern era is data. When people engage in social media, they hand over their lucre for the opportunity to ‘connect’. I’m of the opinion that if you have something valuable, then you should be well-compensated when you give it away. Many people believe that using facebook et al. is suitable compensation for their personal data and hacking risk, I do not.

At this point, I’ve likely alienated several people. That’s fine, opinions are supposed to vary, and the world is big enough to contain many different viewpoints. If you perhaps use social media (which is likely) then this is not an indictment against you or your way of life. This is a statement of my position and belief. In other words, you do you. For me, the use of social sites cost more than I feel they are worth, and thus, I choose to avoid them.