{"id":7118,"date":"2015-08-23T13:29:11","date_gmt":"2015-08-23T13:29:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/?p=7118"},"modified":"2015-08-24T23:17:39","modified_gmt":"2015-08-24T23:17:39","slug":"farewell-facebook-ta-ta-twitter-ive-got-writing-to-do","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/farewell-facebook-ta-ta-twitter-ive-got-writing-to-do\/","title":{"rendered":"Farewell, Facebook. Ta-Ta, Twitter. I\u2019ve Got Writing to Do."},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019ve been tired of social media for a long time.<\/strong><\/p>\n

How\u00adev\u00ader, like a drug addict, I\u2019ve con\u00adtin\u00adued to take hits off it, hop\u00ading to get a sim\u00adi\u00adlar high as in the past, only to dis\u00adcov\u00ader that no mat\u00adter how much time and ener\u00adgy I invest in it, I\u2019m nev\u00ader going to get any\u00adthing sub\u00adstan\u00adtial back from it.<\/p>\n

Why is this? Because the very sys\u00adtem isn\u2019t about<\/em> sub\u00adstance; it\u2019s about ephemera and what\u2019s \u201ctrend\u00ading,\u201d not what\u2019s impor\u00adtant and last\u00ading.<\/p>\n

So I\u2019ve become fed up with social media, and I\u2019m not invest\u00ading any more of my pre\u00adcious time\u2014time that I could and should be spend\u00ading writ\u00ading<\/em>\u2014on some\u00adthing inca\u00adpable of giv\u00ading back to me in mea\u00adsures equal to what I might put into it.<\/p>\n

Orig\u00adi\u00adnal\u00adly I envis\u00adaged writ\u00ading a long, elo\u00adquent good\u00adbye let\u00adter to social media, but I\u2019ve already invest\u00aded too much time in this per\u00adni\u00adcious time-sink, so I\u2019m sim\u00adply going to give the rea\u00adsons why I\u2019m back\u00ading away from it, and be done with it.<\/p>\n

By my best esti\u00admate, I have spent an aver\u00adage of 4 hours per week on social media over the past decade. This trans\u00adlates to about 2,000 hours total, or 50 work weeks. So, out of the past 10 years, I\u2019ve spent one entire year<\/span> on social media.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Because I\u2019ve paid a high price already\u2014I\u2019ve invest\u00aded A YEAR OF MY LIFE in social media, with very lit\u00adtle to show for my efforts (i.e., seri\u00adous\u00adly, 1200 Twit\u00adter fol\u00adlow\u00aders<\/a> in 6 years?)\u2014I am not going to do what some mod\u00adern Lud\u00addites and pri\u00adva\u00adcy fanat\u00adics are doing, and that\u2019s to delete my accounts. No way. I\u2019ve put too much into social media now to do that. But what I am<\/em> going to do is dras\u00adti\u00adcal\u00adly cut any fur\u00adther invest\u00adment in the social media world.<\/p>\n

\"087\"From now on, I am treat\u00ading Face\u00adbook, Twit\u00adter and the rest of the social media uni\u00adverse as a giant office break room bul\u00adletin board. When I have actu\u00adal news<\/em> to share\u2014say a new book or a major interview\u2014I am sim\u00adply going to tack up my fly\u00ader and walk away. Here\u2019s why:<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

1. I\u2019ve learned that I can\u2019t move the nee\u00addle.<\/strong><\/p>\n

For a long time, I bought into a uni\u00adver\u00adsal\u00adly unques\u00adtioned writing\u2013social media axiom: \u201cYou have to be active on social media so you can build your audi\u00adence.\u201d<\/p>\n

Well, I\u2019ve learned that the return on invest\u00adment in social media for writ\u00aders is scanty at best. It has been for me any\u00adway.<\/p>\n

Social media \u201cexperts\u201d<\/a> would say that I haven\u2019t put enough<\/em> time into it, and that if I put more time in, I\u2019d see \u201cbest\u00adselling\u201d results. But frankly, I\u2019ve glanced at the books of a lot of authors who pro\u00admote their books on social media with impunity\u2014and with a relent\u00adless\u00adness rivaled only by termites\u2014and almost every time I am dis\u00adgust\u00aded by the qual\u00adi\u00adty of the writ\u00ading.<\/p>\n

(By the way, I\u2019m not wor\u00adried about insult\u00ading these peo\u00adple because they won\u2019t read this any\u00adway. They\u2019re too busy crank\u00ading out their next \u201cbook\u201d in two months and then assault\u00ading the social media air\u00adwaves with it.)<\/p>\n

No thanks\u2014I\u2019d pre\u00adfer to remain rel\u00ada\u00adtive\u00adly obscure and write well than to sell 100,000 copies of a piece of trash.<\/p>\n

Of course, I real\u00adize there might be a hand\u00adful of writ\u00aders out there who are doing all three\u20141) par\u00adtic\u00adi\u00adpat\u00ading heav\u00adi\u00adly in social media, 2) writ\u00ading well, and 3) sell\u00ading a lot of books\u2014but their exis\u00adtence only begs this ques\u00adtion:<\/p>\n

How much bet\u00adter might these writ\u00aders be if they were invest\u00ading more of their time in their writ\u00ading<\/span> and not social media?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Ulti\u00admate\u00adly, there\u2019s so much noise and jerky move\u00adment in the social media world that the only way to stand out is to be the qui\u00adet, still one.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

2. Social media makes me crazy.<\/strong><\/p>\n

So much of what con\u00adsti\u00adtutes the social media world is trite, ephemer\u00adal and\/or depress\u00ading.<\/p>\n

This is why I haven\u2019t had tele\u00advi\u00adsion (in the form of chan\u00adnels, with news and com\u00admer\u00adcials) for 7\u20138 years: I\u2019m a High\u00adly Sen\u00adsi\u00adtive Per\u00adson<\/a> (e.g., I rou\u00adtine\u00adly put bugs into jars to release them out\u00adside, instead of killing them), and with TV I got tired of hear\u00ading about things that I could\u00adn\u2019t change\u2014murders, polit\u00adi\u00adcal cor\u00adrup\u00adtion, drought, famine, war, etc.<\/p>\n

The same has proven true of social media for me, most recent\u00adly regard\u00ading that den\u00adtist<\/a> who killed Cecil the Lion.<\/p>\n

Please, I don\u2019t need or want to hear about this stuff. Was I out\u00adraged? Yes. But my gen\u00aduine out\u00adrage about the event was drowned out by the large\u00adly false out\u00adrage on social media\u2014the peo\u00adple who just enjoy gang-tack\u00adling, the peo\u00adple who lie in wait for the next polit\u00adi\u00adcal\u00adly cor\u00adrect cause c\u00e9l\u00e8bre du jour<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Every time I\u2019ve gone onto social media late\u00adly, it\u2019s been an unpleas\u00adant expe\u00adri\u00adence for one rea\u00adson or anoth\u00ader. This does\u00adn\u2019t hap\u00adpen to me when I\u2019m sharp\u00aden\u00ading my pen\u00adcils or chang\u00ading a type\u00adwriter rib\u00adbon.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

3. I\u2019m a writer<\/span>, not an inter\u00adnet mar\u00adket\u00ading guru or for\u00admer-some\u00adthing-or-oth\u00ader who wants to be seen as an \u201cauthor.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Writ\u00ading the best pos\u00adsi\u00adble nov\u00adels I can write is hard work. Sure, it\u2019s not cut\u00adting gran\u00adite\u2014some\u00adthing my grand\u00adfa\u00adther and great-grand\u00adfa\u00adther did<\/a>\u2014but it is men\u00adtal\u00adly and phys\u00adi\u00adcal\u00adly drain\u00ading, and it requires com\u00adplete ded\u00adi\u00adca\u00adtion. Any time I spend on social media is just that much less time I have to write.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

I think about one of my writ\u00ading idols, Anton Chekhov, whose life was cut short by tuber\u00adcu\u00adlo\u00adsis at 44. I\u2019ve already got\u00adten a year more than he got. If he were alive today and still ill with a chron\u00adic dis\u00adease, would he be invest\u00ading any of his time in social media<\/em>? I doubt it. More like\u00adly he\u2019d be writ\u00ading as much as his health allowed and spend\u00ading what time he could with his actress lover\/wife, Olga Knip\u00adper<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Also, I\u2019ve dis\u00adcov\u00adered that, for me, using social media to write \u201cposts\u201d is too cathar\u00adtic; hav\u00ading the instant out\u00adlet reduces my cre\u00adative ten\u00adsion to put my words into some\u00adthing more permanent\u2014a book.<\/p>\n

I want to become the best writer I can be, and to do this, cer\u00adtain things have to go, and social media is one of them. I\u2019m just going to have to re-accept the lone\u00adli\u00adness that accom\u00adpa\u00adnies being a writer<\/a>, and get my inter\u00adac\u00adtion and social sus\u00adte\u00adnance from more sub\u00adstan\u00adtial sources: phone calls and lunch\u00ades with friends, golf, chess club, French lessons, trav\u00adel, and, hope\u00adful\u00adly, emails and let\u00adters from read\u00aders and fans.<\/p>\n

If you made it this far, you\u2019re one of the peo\u00adple I\u2019d like to stay in touch with. Send me an email<\/a> some\u00adtime. I\u2019d love to hear from you.<\/p>\n

\u2014Chris<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019ve been tired of social media for a long time. How\u00adev\u00ader, like a drug addict, I\u2019ve con\u00adtin\u00adued to take hits off it, hop\u00ading to get a\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":7139,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,8,209,208],"tags":[218,94,211,217,216,213,215,122,214,220,155,210,219,212],"class_list":["post-7118","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-personal","category-publishingandthemarket","category-social-media-technologyandinternet","category-social-media","tag-chekhov","tag-chris-orcutt","tag-facebook","tag-followers","tag-friends","tag-goodreads","tag-google-plus","tag-hemingway","tag-instagram","tag-luddites","tag-orcutt","tag-social-media","tag-termites","tag-twitter"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7118","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7118"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7118\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7140,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7118\/revisions\/7140"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7139"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}