I’d argue that a) I blogged this into the void and you heard it, so it’s not as hopeless as that metaphor implies, and b) assessing the content by the content-delivery system isn’t necessarily going to give an accurate picture. But I’m saying this as a person who finds both social media and television have enriched my life, and I can see why anyone who hasn’t found what they like in either medium might err on the side of caution.

There’s room for us all, happily!

I like social media, despite its flaws in that department. There are some hilariously funny people out there trolling for my retweets. I may not be willing to grant them the satisfaction very often, but it’s not an unpleasant way to spend some time if you curate your feed wisely.

– My time is too valuable to spend it reading short snippets of meaningless chatter from strangers.

– Twitter and Facebook and Blogging seem like standing on a cliff shouting into the wind and hoping that someone will somehow hear you.
(As Noel Coward said about television, these things are for appearing ON, not for looking AT.)

Maybe I’m just a Luddite.

Yes, I follow some of my favorite writers and I look forward to hearing about what they’re doing.

Mostly, though, I follow others who have similar interests as mine aside from my writing. I like to hear about homesteading issues, outdoors and nature things, and herbalism. I hope that the products I produce interest this same group of people.

Most of what gets Tweeted by me are links to blog posts I’ve made, and sometimes I do get into conversations with others. My first short story sale happened because of a Twitter chat with several magazine editors. But that was about communication, not about “selling” myself or my story. I asked about a need and an editor told me what she lacked in stories for her anthology. Then I set about filling that need and sold the story to her in the usual manner, but I think it was that initial conversation on Twitter that opened the door a bit more than it might have been otherwise.

I like to go the my feed and see what’s there worthy of a RT, and I get discouraged when all I see is plain old self-promotion and very little interesting invitations to want to know more. I do tend to follow blog links that interest me and I’d like to see more of that, but not if it’s just to try and sell me a book.