The Tales of Missus P.: Social networking

I love blogging. I’ve done it since the word weblog was created for news-only sites, until we all decided to make journals out of the capability. I like to write. I like creating content. I like technology too, but I’m starting to really fall behind and I sort of don’t care.

I was asking about book promotions online the other day, because it’s long been discussed that Twitter should not be for spam. Still people do it – a lot. My Twitter feed has gotten to the point where most of it is just links and little discussion. But people will still say they never, ever read or buy books based on a writer’s promotion on Twitter. The alternatives suggested, when I posed the question, were Tumblr and Goodreads.

Tumblr may be the place to be, but after updating my Pick Books page, I didn’t see a lot of original work there. If you’re an artist, fine. If you make animated GIFs, fine. But, just like Pinterest, reblogging and repinning content doesn’t take much effort, so there isn’t much life in the posts. Granted, I like the funny ones like Dog Shaming, but I don’t need to look on Tumblr for anything. (Pinterest still doesn’t interest me either. Someone on my FB credited Pinterest for her cute, colored dish of devilled eggs for Easter. Yeah, I don’t have any use for that in my life.) If people are making book trailers, I totally get that. I get the book promos too, but aren’t they going to get lost in the mix of funny Doctor Who and Harry Potter photos? (I like them to an extent, don’t get me wrong, but I’m not a fan or anything.) If they were photos I took with my own camera, I would be fine with uploading and sharing them. I had that idea when I started No Intent to Buy and my Foodie Blog. Other than that, it’s not that compelling of a situation to invest time in.

Goodreads is a reasonable book promotion tool even though Amazon has bought them and it’s such a big deal now. (I solved the dilemma personally – it has an app to update my book progress, therefore I keep my Goodreads account.) I understand how easily it would be to offer book giveaways and contests, but I can’t be the only person who ignores them. I get invites for those all the time and I never participate. I would think Twitter would be a less intrusive way to offer book giveaways – I’ve participated in contests from links there and I hear that plenty of people have legitimately won free books.

Aside from these sites, I’ve talked before about how Facebook has lost its heart and soul too. In the past few weeks I’ve demoted friends’ posts to allow “only important” updates show up. I’m tired of the cutesy motivational photos, the awful, blurry photos of people at bars, and the insipid updates every five minutes about their daily activities (that’s what Twitter is for, ya’ll.)

Still, I am a bigger fan of FB than Twitter because people I actually know let me know what’s going on in their lives. I don’t love it either since all people seem to be able to do is mindlessly share things there too (though I did post a funny punctuation joke yesterday.) I don’t mind chatting to strangers online but I don’t base my life around it. I just don’t feel the need to do that. When I worked full time I was glad to have the focus outside of the technology spectrum, so I didn’t have to feel obligated or bored enough to just habitually check or update Twitter. I know I’m in the minority on this, and I do not begrudge anyone who enjoys it. It’s all in how you use it, and for me, it’s something I can just take it or leave. Now that Lost is over, I don’t feel as enthusiastic about the discussions. (Besides, the discussions are very limited for me personally, from what I’ve found.)

Lastly, I set my LinkedIn profile to private today. I got an invite to connect with a girl I use to be friends with, who was full of idiotic gossip and drama that I put behind me years ago. I’ve blocked them from FB, and email, yet since LinkedIn can’t block specific users, they can still see my current address and work-related information. No. I just can’t abide by that, especially when I know the reason for the invite was just to be nosey rather than a good-natured outreach of rekindling a friendship. I know the idea of LinkedIn is to keep contacts with former work-mates in order to find job positions, but if someone whom I specifically don’t want knowing my business, can, then it’s not worth bothering with having my resume up for public viewing. It really creeped me out when I realized that this girl and her group of numbskulls have been snooping around on my online profile. (I’m honestly surprised she could figure out how to create a LinkedIn account in the first place.)

Anyway, needless to say, I’m finding social networking less and less interesting. Everywhere I look, I hear people raving about Twitter, Pinterest, and Tumblr, but I’ve just never been in love with any of it. Well, at least Megan Fox is on my side.