Social media can be a pleasure or a pain. It can bring out the bitch in a person, or invoke the angel. It can make or break people’s careers. It is a living, breathing beast and judging from what is currently happening on Twitter regarding the recent RITA/RWA book awards, it invokes emotions and conversations the likes of which some people can’t control.
Here are a few of my own observations…
I’ve been looking at a very popular author’s timeline and their author page, and I am shaking my head that this particular author has seldom acknowledged any of the posts to their timeline, from bloggers posting and tagging them in a great reviews, a general ‘Thought of you, you’ll like this’ post from fans, gushing attributes towards said author’s writing (mine included in the past) and how much people love the characters….the list goes on and on. The perception is they don’t care about the people sending good wishes and fangirling. As long as they still buy the author’s books. Then all is good with the world.
I’m humbled when someone has the time to tag and post on my timeline and I always try and acknowledge it, even if it’s a simple LIKE. I know it’s tough keeping on top of stuff but to not interact at all in some way is rather sad. Am I being too harsh thinking this? Am I the one being the bitch in this instance?
And the oversharing that goes on….there are some rather intimate things I simply don’t want to know about you or your family members or your past sexploits, or the fact you have a boil in a sensitive spot. I scroll past these, because everyone has the right to post what they want on their own walls, but after a while, I tend to hit ‘unfollow’ or ‘unfriend’. It’s a pity but there you go. I’m invoking my right not to read that sort of stuff, which is, after all, what Mark Zuckerberg says he’s trying to encourage. It’s a pity he doesn’t encourage more diversity and stop being a homophobic organisation, but we can’t have everything.
And then the scariest part of all, which is when I go into a browser to do some research, like looking for information about Greek islands to holiday in, those EXACT islands I checked out then begin appearing in my Facebook feed as adverts and continue to harass me on my own newsfeed. What’s that all about? Who’s kidding who in saying there isn’t collusion between the internet giants like Google, and Facebook?
I know I sound like a conspiracy theorist but this shit is real, people. Someone is watching us…
Social media, particularly Facebook, causes metaphorical teeth marks in my tongue!