Tag: Social Media

Outside the Maze of Social Media…

On By Willow CroftIn Uncategorized16 Comments

 

The Maze

 

Goodness, Twitter’s layout change really threw me for a loop. I guess it’s telling that I didn’t even have an inkling that a changeover was in the works.

And I’m not even as experienced at Twitter as I wish I was, so I was perplexed as to why the change hit me so hard.

I’m not going to wax philosophical over a social media platform, but I’m also a oddly, incredibly sad about the change. And I feel a little displaced from that part of the internet world.

Maybe it’s the fact that social media has become such a staple of our lives that when it changes, it’s like losing a best friend. And maybe that’s even sadder.

Naturally, the designers have every right to change the layout of their social media program any way they want. And there’s some out there who are embracing the change.

But once I got over the initial shock of losing my purpley font and fun Twitter background, I felt relief.

“Thank goodness I don’t have to get lost in that part of the social media maze anymore,” I thought next.

I wanted to delete my Twitter account straightaway (I didn’t!), but I did tweet that I would probably be taking a sabbatical for the time being.

I just don’t have the energy to renavigate Twitter all over again.

I would certainly miss posts from the people I follow, but I consoled myself with the thought they could stop by here and say hi. And, since I didn’t delete my account, I could always peek in from time to time to keep up with them.

But, you know, I have a life. It may be very, very far from the life I want, still, but this intense transition period I’m in is definitely keeping me busy while I try to get everything sorted.

Heck, the number of short story and poetry submission deadlines alone are enough to fill the Twitterverse void.

Not to mention trying to sort out my employment situation, or where I’m going to live (or emigrate to) in hopes of climbing out of this tumultuous storm into a more stable existence. Or, at the very least, a more fulfilling one.

Which is why I don’t have time to weather the storms of change in social media. When everything’s in upheaval, you really want some things to keep on being a safe harbor.

But, then, quixotically, social media isn’t really a safe harbor in many ways. Especially for those of a diverse nature in regards to gender, et al.

It is a platform where the president of the United States will doggedly continue to tweet all of his garbage and nonsense, after all. (Long live #FakeNews! *laugh*)

So, maybe I’m in better company without the distractions of the Twitterverse, generally speaking.

And, earlier today, I wrote the first draft of a story for Fantasia Divinity Magazine’s Isolation theme.

Now, I’m catching up by writing this intended blog entry, based on my visual prompt I started earlier.

And I don’t feel so alone, anymore.

(And, maybe, just maybe, #SnailMail will start trending again!)

Seeking Simplicity…

On By Willow CroftIn Uncategorized25 Comments

Seeking Simplicity...

According to my National Day Calendar, today is Simplicity Day.

Boy, do I want to launch the Simplicity Revolution single-handedly.

But I can only revolutionize my own life, in this case. Otherwise, I’d be the dictator of the world. Which I’ve entertained in daydreams about one of my future lives, I’m afraid I have to admit. 

So, I am really thinking hard, and putting those thoughts into action by transitioning to a simpler life. 

I don’t have cable. Cable companies extracting $150-$200/month (or more!!!) for their services? No, thank you. That’s $1800-2400 a month! Absurd! Even if I had the money, I wouldn’t give it to the cable companies. And they’ve somebody managed it so that you can’t even view the public access channels anymore.

My big pet peeve, though, with cable companies and internet companies and phone companies is that it seems there is zero accountability. 

It’s like when you buy any appliance that they are still manufacturing to break down within a few years, and then say “you have to buy a warranty plan if you want to guarantee that it will continue to work even in that small window of time.” Seriously? Is no-one paying attention to how consumers’ rights are just being gutted? Buy an appliance that’s a gamble if it’s even going to work? Are you kidding me? Why have technology if it doesn’t work?

So, here you are, in the same way, paying for internet and cable and phone service every month and it doesn’t even work properly. Or the equipment breaks and you have to pay to have it repaired. And now companies just absolve themselves of responsibility by training their support and tech teams to play the customer blame game; stating it’s your connected devices and equipment that’s not working and that there’s nothing wrong with their service.

And I’m trying to resist getting on my soapbox about the (failure) of medical care today, as that’s also a really personal issue.

So, I do wonder when people are going to say enough. I think people are moving that way. 

I mean, I think that internet is not going away. I use it (on a learning curve) to build my author platform. But I stay away from Facebook. I use Canva to post on Twitter, Pinterest, and sometimes Tumblr. And I have my blog, of course. As a writer, I have to submit everything over the internet, although I wish I could submit things the old way.

But I’m at the point where I want to return to basics. Snail mail. Get correspondence to my mailing address. I’d even rather talk to people on the phone, but I have such bad reception that I’m stuck paying for, that I can’t even manage that. Still, I’m working on weaning myself off my movie streaming provider. Transition back to reading a book in the evenings. Other creative pastimes. 

So, do you agree that simplicity is going to be humanity’s next social revolution? If so, how do you plan to join the fight?

Share your thoughts, links to your blogs/articles/stories, or other means of sharing your ideas in the comments below.

 

 

 

New LinkedIn Group for Women Horror Writers

On By Willow CroftIn Uncategorized11 Comments

 

As I struggle with time management, especially with ADHD and a day job on top of the writing and business duties, I’ve been diligently working on a social media plan and schedule. It’s led to me to try some new things and to try to figure out which social media platforms I like the best (Twitter, for example, mystifies me more than infomercials).

Among my new ventures:

  • I just started a group on LinkedIn, for women horror writers: Fear-minists: Women Horror Writers Around the Globe. Join up if you are a horror writer that identifies with being a woman (safe and welcoming space) or even if you just love a good horror story.
  • I think I will try to focus more on Pinterest. I don’t care what the detractors say; it’s fun. Especially for the visceral, visual type of writing I plan to do more of in the future. I started setting up a writer’s inspiration board.
  • I’m also going to try to be more active on Goodreads.
  • My blog will still carry on as my main author website, of course!

 

I’ll still be on Twitter somewhat, but since I never really got the hang of it, there probably won’t be much of a difference there. Until I can hire someone to manage social media. And, Facebook, well, aside from the well-publicized news headlines it’s been racking up, I only use it to keep in touch with IRL connections. Or to get notifications about local events. And, yes, I use it to play the game formerly known as YoVille. I can justify wasting time on there because it’s actually a great ADHD focus tool for when I have to do computer work, without which I also wouldn’t have survived grad school. Thanks for keeping me on track, YoWorld!