THE TIME SUCK OF SOCIAL MEDIA

Do any of you guys remember what writing was like before the Interwebz? Pre-1998? I do, and I'm trying to decide if it was better. I know, I know; I’m dating myself. But seriously. The Internet was supposed to be a time-saving thing, freeing us all up to do extraordinary things like skydiving and spinning flax into thread and whatnot. I don’t know about you, but I haven’t jumped on that crafty bandwagon yet.

On the plus side, writers are storytellers, and social media is a great place to tell tales. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Wattpad, and Vocal … they’re all good platforms; ones which can really help to boost your presence as a writer. These platforms can be motivating; they help you “show up” regularly, and doing that is a wonderful way to form a consistent writing habit.

But there’s a downside, too. Think about it; you get up, write for a while, then hear a “ping” on your phone. So, you pour yourself another cup of coffee, check out your screen, and BOOM—thirty-eight minutes goes by in what seems like six. Thirty-eight minutes you will never see again. And what have you achieved? Not much, except maybe you got to see Jenna, your high school nemesis and her super-fit, bikini-clad body doing yoga on a white sand beach in Bora Bora. She's doing a handstand, with perfect hair, while her well-behaved French bulldogs (Chopin and Debussy) lay sunning themselves in the dunes behind her.

And then there's that writer friend you have—the one who just posted about finishing her eighth book in four years; the one with twins (whom she home schools), a 1/2 acre veggie garden full of organic kale and garlic, and a wardrobe boasting handmade clothes spun from the ivory manes and tails of baby unicorns... or some such thing.

Feel better now? No? Why not? You've written forty-six words today, and at least fourteen of them are pretty great. You've GOT this!

So, what do you think? What’s your experience with social media? Are you able to balance your online time like a boss? Does it make the actual craft of writing easier for you?

Maybe the secret is turning off your Wifi or writing somewhere where you can’t get access. I used to write in my son’s old long-abandoned tree fort. It was just out of WiFi range, private and cool, and far enough away from things like laundry and the telephone and toilets that needed scrubbing. The bonus was that “pop-in” visitors came, and then left, while I watched from my hidden Nirvana high up in the fir boughs, a gleeful and sinister smile on my face. (Speaking of pop-ins, WHO DOES THAT, ANYWAY? Wait. Don’t get me started; that’s another post altogether.)

I guess it’s all about our eternal quest for “balance.” Because we all strive for that perfect sweet spot—the one made up of equal parts work, rest, and play. Sometimes we get it right, but other times we work ourselves into a full-blown panic attack, or we indulge in so much “play” that we can’t go to work the next day. There’s such a thing as too much rest, too. If you binge-watched the entire Breaking Bad series in a couple of weeks (who, me?), you should probably be concerned about a potential case of thrombosis in your future. Just sayin’…

Maybe we just need fewer social media accounts. Because the more we have, the more we go there. And the more we go there, the less we do the thing we really should be doing. Think about it. Do we really have to have a Pinterest board that features only books with yellow dust jackets? Is that going to propel our dreams forward? Food for thought, no?

I shall now say goodbye and return to my forty-six words.

That is all.