Can anyone really explain the point of all this online chatter? I know we are here sharing our thoughts and ideas, but to what end? To sell books? Show off? Share wisdom? Or are we all just shouting “look at me, look at me” over and over like a desperate teenager?
Lately, I’ve been questioning the need for social media. There is so much competition for “follows” and “likes” it makes me feel like I’m back in high school. I’m the dweeb in the back of the room (which is what I was at 15) desperately wishing I had what the cool kids had. What was the secret? Clothes? Money? Beauty? Here I am, all grown up and wondering why more people on Twitter don’t think I’m clever.
The internet has trapped us all in perpetual adolescence.
What’s the answer? To sell books, I need social media. How else will anyone discover my authors or my own writing? Without a big marketing budget I rely on word of mouth, especially internet word of mouth. But now we’re back to a popularity contest. The more followers I have, the more people hear about the books I publish through Medusa’s Muse. The more I talk about my classes, the more people sign up for them. I’m back to age 16 hoping someone asks me to the Spring dance.
With so much constant chatter I wonder if anyone pays attention to social media anymore. Advertisers have discovered people ignore their pop up adds now because we’ve become immune to them. There are too many people trying to sell too much shit all the time.
What’s the answer? Is there any way to win this popularity contest?
Terena Scott 
I recently read that publishers don’t consider would-be authors worthy of further consideration if they have less than 3000 Twitter followers. That will never be me, though I don’t doubt my skills or willingness to work hard at the art and craft of writing. And it’s disturbing to look at social media and see people ostensibly arguing for body acceptance or health, but making it click-baity by including overtly sexual photos (of themselves when looking for thumbs up, or of media images to spark a conversation). I so often come to get inspired, but turn off the computer feeling like there’s no place for me in this particular club. The club that represents my best chance of finding work or a place to live. It’s scary.
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Yes, what Heather said! The click-bait culture on Twitter is so irritating. Yet if you don’t play the game, you don’t grow your numbers. If you don’t grow your numbers, you don’t have a platform. If you don’t have a platform, your voice isn’t worth hearing (to some people anyway). Makes you want to hide in the back of the classroom with your Walkman cranking the Smiths…
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