For the past few weeks, I've been experimenting with various social media platforms to see if they're a good fit for me. I've been on Instagram and Facebook for a while, but wanted to try X (formerly Twitter) and Substack, too.
This experiment has confirmed that I don't particularly like social media.
Take X, for example. While I do enjoy the layout and discussions, I found myself drawn into political arguments. As soon as I replied to an opposing viewpoint, my feed got hammered by those same differing viewpoints. It was a nightmare to sort out.
Pro tip for X: keep your feed "clean" by never clicking on things you don't want to see.
After spending several hours per night over a week going down the X rabbit hole, I deleted my account. It's just too distracting.
The same goes for Instagram. While I love the visual format, it's a complete time suck for me. I ended up deleting that account, too.
I'm undecided about Substack. While it's full of great writers, I'm not sure it's a great platform for me, as a writer. I could use it as a blog, sure, but then what would I do with the blog on my website? Or I could post short stories, but what would I post to my newsletter?
I also thought about doing deep dives into various issues or topics there, but that would take away from my fiction writing time (my #1 work priority). So I'm undecided about Substack and may very well delete my account, or shift it to follow/subscribe only so that I can keep up with the many wonderful creators there.
Facebook is, unfortunately, a necessary evil. Facebook ads still, occasionally, work, and this is the one place where I can interact with various important writer communities. I've shifted to an announcement-only usage there, for now, because like most other social media, it's a complete time and energy drain.
I know there are plenty of other social media sites out there, but aside from TikTok and YouTube, neither of which appeal to me at the moment, these are the main ones.
My goal with social media is to connect with readers, and I think there are better ways to do that than spending endless hours building a house on the shifting sands of someone else's platform. This website and blog, for example, are platforms I control; and I do have short stories in the works just for newsletter subscribers. Live events, with their finite timespans, are also a far better option than endless online conversations. If you're wondering how to keep up with what I'm doing, these are the places I'll be.
Ultimately, my main goal is to serve readers. The best way to do that is to give them (You!) new stories, which necessarily entails devoting more time to writing fiction and less time to writing social media posts.