This post was inspired by Anne R Allen’s post celebrating her 10year blogiversary, which, like all her posts, has a wealth of information, especially if you’re a writer who blogs.

I’ve never been a big fan of social media. I’d say it’s my age, but I’m aware of enough people in their mid-50s and above who’ve embraced things like Facebook.

I’m not saying social media is the spawn of evil. It has good moments, like helping people/families connect regardless of where you are in the world, keeping on the pulse of breaking news, helping to highlight injustice and cruelties. On sites like Twitter, it allows fans to connect with celebrities they admire, gives people the chance to ask questions of experts…

For writers, it’s apparently a good way to connect with their potential readers. That may well be true, but it still isn’t my cup of tea.

My first foray into social media was signing up to Facebook. The only reason I did it was because that was the way our home-schooling group kept in touch. Trust me, I’d rather have had a tooth pulled without anaesthetic.

As time went on, I allowed myself to get pressured (all self-inflicted) into doing what new writers were advised to do to build their platform. As I was already on FB, I set up an ‘author page’. Suffice to say, it didn’t go well.

The thing with most of the ‘advice’ on the internet, it’s to do with building a business where you’re selling product. It does not translate into anything workable for authors wanting to connect with their readers. Yet, the ‘experts’ always say, almost as a throw-away comment, of course it’ll work for authors too.

I realised I was spending way too much time worrying about numbers and how much I should be paying for ads instead of writing. That, and the whole Cambridge Analytica hoo-ha, resulted in me bidding FB goodbye. I deleted my account.

Can I just say, FB does not make it easy at all to delete your account. I, literally, had to hunt high and low on the internet before I could find pointers as to how to do it. It’s well hidden. And, at each step, you’re asked if you really do want to delete. Yeesh! I do not miss it at all.

To be honest, I’d rather not be on social media. But I felt, as an author, I should. So, I decided to give Twitter a go. I’d already set up an account a few years ago but hadn’t done anything with it. Taking a deep breath, I dived in early last year.

I dutifully followed other writers, historians and people who were suggested whom I found interesting. Not having a clue about what to post, I tried things like quotes and historical facts. Over a year later, I still haven’t settled on the sorts of things to post.

After a while, I realised what really caught my interest was wild horse advocacy, and many of my retweets are about that. That’s what I tend to do more than anything else – retweet. With the occasional personal tweet.

And therein lies my problem with social media. I’m too private! Obsessively so. Apart from thinking surely no one wants to know anything about my life, I’m not at all comfortable sharing personal stuff, apart from surface-level stuff.

I know I’ve shared personal things on my blog. But the blog feels more like ‘my own space’, unlike Twitter, where I feel like I’m on display.

Having gone on Twitter to, hopefully, connect with potential readers, I find I’m not following or being followed by any. Don’t get me wrong. I have connected with a few lovely people. On the flip side, though, I’ve had a couple of not-nice interactions, which I’ve found upsetting and off-putting.

Lately, I find I’m not going on Twitter that much for various reasons. For a writer, I actually find I don’t have much to say. And, like FB, its distracting me from writing.

But unlike FB, I’m not going to get rid of my Twitter account. I’ll still drop in every now and again.

Instead, I’m going to focus on my writing and spend more time here, on my blog. The one social media place I’ve always felt comfortable.

Make that my blog and Pinterest. It’s a good place for an introvert to hang out – lots of pretty pictures and very little interaction – especially when one has had a day of too much ‘people-ing’.

Since reading Anne’s post, I’ve rethought my approach to blogging. I’m no longer going to angst about having to post a certain number of times a week to be noticed. Yes, I’d like more people to visit and, hopefully, enjoy my blog. But, at the same time, it’s also ok if only a few people drop by. Instead of blogging three times a week, I’m dropping back down to one or two – some weeks, I might post Tuesday and Saturday, other weeks, just Tuesday.

After all that, you’re probably thinking I hate social interaction. I assure you, I don’t. I do struggle with surface-level interactions, much prefer getting to know people and building meaningful connections.

So, please feel free to leave a comment; I always reply. But if you’d rather just read, that’s ok too. So long as you’re enjoying the content, that’s fine with me.

My Love-Hate (Mainly Hate) Relationship With Social Media