Seanan McGuire (seanan_mcguire) wrote,
Seanan McGuire
seanan_mcguire
  • Mood: cranky
  • Music: The theme from Pokemon X.

Social media saturation.

There's a trend I've been noticing lately: everything is suddenly everywhere. I think this may have something to do with the emails I receive daily that are literally checklists of every social media site in existence, complete with a handy "be sure to like this here! Be sure to tweet about this here! Be sure to make a witty Tumblr post complete with reaction .gif here! Be sure to..." and I don't know what comes after that, because I have already deleted the email and gone off to interact with something less exhausting. I have enough trouble remembering to promote myself; I can't take on the responsibility of promoting everything I come into contact with.

It feels like the signal to noise ratio is getting skewed; everything is a sea of signal boosts and endorsements and link-backs and that's lovely, if they're things that you support and believe in. I try to post and tweet and yes, Facebook and the rest about things that I care about. But I don't care about everything in the universe. That would be exhausting.

I wonder if we're just all drowning, and thus all afraid of being overlooked. Whatever it is, I admit I'm getting a little tired of being told how to use my social media. "People will be more likely to notice this if you tweet it!" Well...yes. But then they're less likely to notice my awesome Pokemon.

Everything's a trade-off.
Tags: contemplation, technology
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  • 62 comments

reedrover

November 12 2013, 18:31:33 UTC 3 years ago

I just got back from two weeks in South America, most of which was spent completely unplugged from all interwebs. I caught up on LJ and G+ in about two hours, complete with the responses I wanted to make, and considered that time reasonably well spent catching up on my social circle. I care about what people think when they have their own reactions and introspections and happenings to present, hence my love for LJ. (I also read the BBC news site to learn about the typhoon in Asia, among other major events.)

I do not have Tumblr, Facebook, or Twitter accounts. I don't care all that much what acquaintances/strangers think is cool just for coolness' sake. I don't think my life is less wonderful because I don't read/forward/like/favorite every social cause or interesting graphic. While I might express interest about my second cousin's third child's latest loose tooth if we happen to have a phone conversation, I don't think I need to see a photo of it so that I can "like" it to my friends.

seanan_mcguire

December 15 2013, 18:59:10 UTC 3 years ago

Fair and balanced use.