Social ME-dia

Omg, my attention span feels slightly diminished of late. It seems as if every time I sit down to accomplish something, I am (or allow myself to be) pulled in an entirely different direction.  This has not, historically, been an issue for me. I’ve prided myself on my ability to multitask, take breaks, focus when necessary, be productive, create daily to-do lists, prioritize and limit screen-time. I’ve attributed the effectiveness of my executive functioning to not being on social media. Besides, I’ve told myself, people are often immodest and phony when curating their lives for others to view on Facebook and Instagram, and I wanted no part of it.

Until I needed to be on social media. And, as it turns out, I was being ever-so-slightly smug about the whole thing.

For most human beings, hyper-focused productivity doesn’t mix well with passive activities which are short in duration and involve dozens – hundreds? – of unrelated topics and people. It’s that “rabbit hole” syndrome we are all familiar with, and it’s terribly difficult to force yourself out of it once you’ve fallen. In my case, shortly after signing with my publisher, I created a Facebook account (a profile and an author page) and an Instagram account for my book. Prior to that, I did have an Instagram account on which I only posted my artwork and, occasionally, dog or food pics. Rarely, mind you. It was definitely not a problem.

I suppose what I’m trying to point out is that I see a defining line between where my executive functioning level was before vs. after I became a regular visitor on social media (I say “visitor” as opposed to “resident”; I’m still relatively good at limiting the amount of time I spend posting and viewing/responding to other people’s posts). I don’t need to read a scholarly article to know that my increased use of social media has altered, even temporarily, my ability to focus. Plus, when I take a break from posting or reading anything on social media, even for a day or two, I notice a substantial improvement in my cognitive abilities.

Do I need to spend time on social media? Of course not. Plenty of authors do not use Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or TikTok to tout their books or create a brand for themselves. There are myriad other ways of putting yourself and your product out there, or you can hire someone to manage your social media marketing if you want to have some engagement without putting in the time.

 Yet, I do see the value of social media where marketing and promotion are concerned, and it has also helped connect me to a wonderfully supportive and knowledgeable community of not only writers but also – yes – social media influencers who do the daily work of reading, reviewing and sharing new books with their followers. Will any of this translate into sales of A Letter in the Wall? To a large extent, it already has in terms of pre-orders. For that, I am grateful to everyone who has read my posts and felt somehow moved to order my book.

I don’t judge folks (other than unkind people, predators and violent extremists) who enjoy interacting on social media and, truth be told, it can be downright entertaining and, at times, even illuminating.

Still, at the end of each day, I crawl into bed and grab whichever novel is currently on my night table. In that 30- to 45-minute period, my brain is entirely focused on the words written on the pages of a paperback or hardback book. In some ways, this feels like a “reset” and it restores my faith in my ability to regain agency over my attention. It settles my mind.

 Although, I will say that my dreams have been soooo bizarre of late. But, that’s something for another blog post.