Buccaneer Blogfest - Final Countdown - Part 1
Arrrg!!! It's been a fun journey, but I think I see land ahead... time to batten down the hatches... and other nautical stuff! Sorry, I'll stick to my non-pirate job. Moving along... Today's prompt: "Social Media: Share your feelings and opinions about social media and it's relation to writing and reading."
All you have to do is scroll back to last year (and the year before) to find out what I thought of social media back then. However, I'll be nice and save you some time by quoting one of my last rants on the subject:
"My Threadless T-shirts began to have more personality than the one wearing them. A few of friends asked me to pick up my old habit of journaling, but it seemed so hard to find the time. Then Facebook came along and made everyone lazy. Why post a thought provoking blog when you could simply overload everyone's newsfeed with a bazillion status updates about what you're doing just to see if anyone "likes" it? A one sentence long status that gets several comments can seem more rewarding than putting 30 minutes of carefully planned typing out there with not so much as a single response. It was this line of thinking that addressed the problem for me. I've gotten away from sending my words out into the interwebs for my own benefit... like so many others, I'd begun doing it for a reaction."
It took me a long time to stop being mad at Facebook for killing MySpace. I missed designing my own layout, but more importantly, I missed having my personalized page and my blog all in one spot. I eventually gave in and started my Blogger account, but most of my actual friends didn't have one, so my audience waned. No one wanted to check both Facebook and Blogger... what a hassle! Of course, in the last couple of months, I've explored a whole new side of social media. Shifting my focus from a daily journal to incorporating my journey as a determined writer has opened my mind to new possibilities. I've said it a dozen times in the past few weeks, but the genuine support that writers show for one another during blog hops truly is mind-blowing. I'm so grateful to have stumbled onto this network of inspirational, like-minded people. Connecting with others, gathering feedback and reading their samples has had a huge positive impact on me. Everyone I've interacted with has given me the strength to continue moving forward. As for reading, I would have never read such a variety of work had I not found out about these mini-contests and flash fiction events that are constantly popping up.
For anyone who hasn't gone blog fest crazy like me recently and would like to jump in even deeper, I'll point you to another that's sure to be as fun as this one. To check out another perfect example of how being a part of a blogging community helps writers flourish, click here:
That's right... it's an anonymous, weekly challenge! Anyone can enter and anyone can vote, provided you sign in with the linky tool, of course. Please go support some more aspiring authors and have a blast!
Click the photo link below for full details:
All you have to do is scroll back to last year (and the year before) to find out what I thought of social media back then. However, I'll be nice and save you some time by quoting one of my last rants on the subject:
"My Threadless T-shirts began to have more personality than the one wearing them. A few of friends asked me to pick up my old habit of journaling, but it seemed so hard to find the time. Then Facebook came along and made everyone lazy. Why post a thought provoking blog when you could simply overload everyone's newsfeed with a bazillion status updates about what you're doing just to see if anyone "likes" it? A one sentence long status that gets several comments can seem more rewarding than putting 30 minutes of carefully planned typing out there with not so much as a single response. It was this line of thinking that addressed the problem for me. I've gotten away from sending my words out into the interwebs for my own benefit... like so many others, I'd begun doing it for a reaction."
It took me a long time to stop being mad at Facebook for killing MySpace. I missed designing my own layout, but more importantly, I missed having my personalized page and my blog all in one spot. I eventually gave in and started my Blogger account, but most of my actual friends didn't have one, so my audience waned. No one wanted to check both Facebook and Blogger... what a hassle! Of course, in the last couple of months, I've explored a whole new side of social media. Shifting my focus from a daily journal to incorporating my journey as a determined writer has opened my mind to new possibilities. I've said it a dozen times in the past few weeks, but the genuine support that writers show for one another during blog hops truly is mind-blowing. I'm so grateful to have stumbled onto this network of inspirational, like-minded people. Connecting with others, gathering feedback and reading their samples has had a huge positive impact on me. Everyone I've interacted with has given me the strength to continue moving forward. As for reading, I would have never read such a variety of work had I not found out about these mini-contests and flash fiction events that are constantly popping up.
For anyone who hasn't gone blog fest crazy like me recently and would like to jump in even deeper, I'll point you to another that's sure to be as fun as this one. To check out another perfect example of how being a part of a blogging community helps writers flourish, click here:
That's right... it's an anonymous, weekly challenge! Anyone can enter and anyone can vote, provided you sign in with the linky tool, of course. Please go support some more aspiring authors and have a blast!
Posts
Social media, where do I begin? I used to be anti-technology. In fact, I began e-mailing only a few years ago, but I've been converted. More by necessity than desire but it's been very rewarding. The writing community is wonderful, supportive, informative, and inspiring. Where else could I find the encouragement to go on?
I definitely think it's great. I just need to take a speed reading course, and jumpstart my typing skills. If not for beginning to blog, I wouldn't have met all the wonderful writer's out here...including you! Have a great week T!
That's why I like my blog. The templates are changeable whenever I get a mood to change them. As a matter of fact, I think I'll change my tonight. (I've changed it 3 times already this week.)
Thanks for pointing to the challenge, that looks awesome :)
Aww, thanks, Millie! I'm so glad to have crossed paths with you, too... and I've got my eye out for your book so I can ready the rest!
I think changing mine led to dysfunction... last week, my profile, subscribe and followers widgets were all of a sudden moved to the very bottom of my blog and now I can't fix it. Each time I've tried to fix it, I've made it worse!
No problem, Sylvia... I hope you have fun voting and if you enter a piece, good luck!
Ditto, Rose!