social media - C.E. Lemieux Jr

I usually try to have a couple posts at hand in the event I don’t have time to put something together. I’ve been a little behind lately, so I pulled this one out. It was written well before the recent Covid-19 issues. Current events put a little different spin on it.

I had a conversation with one of my sons about the impact of social media on personality. He was listening to a podcast which discussed how an individual’s “in person” personality differed from their “social media” personality. It reminded me of a quote from the movie The Mask. It was a quote which got a lot of play in our household at the time.

“That’s correct, Wendy. We all wear masks, metaphorically speaking.” — Dr. Arthur Neuman (Ben Stein)

In many ways, social media has become a mask for some of us. As I mentioned before, I’d like to keep this blog free from political bias as much as I humanly can. I’m here to talk about my books, words, stories, and life. But when we talk about words and their impact, there is no denying social media has certainly had an impact upon the way our society uses words and speech. Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and a host of other platforms give voice to reach the world. Buying your own website, as I have done, allows freedom of speech and an audience once unknown or unimaginable.

In a previous blog, I shared my reflections of watching the interactions of men with different political, religious, ethnic, career, and personal persuasions. They clearly differed in their positions or opinions, but they didn’t hold those differences as weapons against each other. That’s something which rarely happens in the social media controlled world we live in today.

Social media has had a profound affect upon the way we use our words. The distance and the anonymity which social media has created between individuals has made it easier to attack each other. Words which would never have been used face to face, from a position of common courtesy or respect, are thrown out with the force of a rocket. Mild mannered individuals are spurred to vent their frustrations. Introverts become online extroverts. Differences become societal emergencies. Words become weapons, or worse the impetus to use weapons and violence. People with different opinions become enemies, and the cause becomes justification for the anger.

Because of the internet, individuals who would consider themselves as introverts in public, suddenly find a voice on social media. I understand. I am one of those people who find more comfort in the written word than in the public or social interaction. However, one of the reasons I care for the written word is because it allows me time for thought. Words, sentences, and concepts in this article will be rethought and rewritten multiple times before I get the courage to share them. Social media has shown itself to be an encouragement to respond without thought.

Spontaneous interactions, social conversation, and causal encounters give cause to speak and release emotions we would normally work though. Because of its limits and relative distance, it creates greater opportunity for miscommunication. We’ve all responded at some time in a way we later found to regret with proper reflection. Social media has made that even easier.

While some people are more alive in a public or social environment, others are not. Social media has given voice to those who felt they had none. We see people rant, air their family’s dirty laundry, complain, tell others how they’ve been mistreated, and use social media as a way to bring attention unto themselves. In fact, Twitter’s entire point of being is to encourage users to spit out the first thing that comes to mind and keep it under one hundred and forty characters; something with which I have tremendous difficulty.

Another change social media has encouraged into our society is divisiveness. I’m not talking about the divisiveness between segments of society; I’m talking about differences reflected in personal interactions, in community. Before social media — when we only spoke with those with whom we worked, or interacted with people on a person to person and daily basis — we did what we could to get along. We had our opinions, but we knew others did as well. We shared space with people who might not have been just like us; we maintained decorum and a sense of community. But now, with the advancement of the internet and social media, we can retreat to a corner where everyone is the same as us. We can find others out there who think like us, and we don’t have to live among those with whom we disagree. It encourages us to disregard all those things which allowed us to function as a civil society.

Politicians and politically motivated organizations use social media as a tool to promote their ideas, beliefs, and grow their numbers. It feeds the growing divide in society. Words are used on multiple sides of the issues to both inflame the emotions of supporters and characterize the opposition in negative ways. Words are spun so fast that sometimes we can’t even tell what is true and what is not.

Of course, for all of it’s potential evils, social media has its benefits. Family and friends unite, sharing news and photos over the internet. We sometimes gain new friends. It allows those who are shut-in to reach out and find comfort. Some people find out that they are not alone. It allows groups and communities an avenue of communication. Those in need can find support groups and chat. We can more easily rally around a worthy cause. We even raise money for charity and special causes through this digital word of mouth. We support our schools and students on our pages, tweets, and posts. We promote our businesses and our book blogs over social media. We share passions, art, and thought.

When it comes down to it, it isn’t social media that has changed society, it is how we use it. We alone hold ownership of our words. Social media may feel like a mask, but it isn’t. Social media may empower our speech, but we are the ones speaking. We may use Facebook and Twitter to say what we want, but we decide how we say it, how we use the words, and whether or not we choose to hurt or heal with them. We have freedom of speech, but we also have a burden of responsibility. It’s tough, especially when we feel we have a moral obligation to speak out, but we don’t win the conversation by destroying the audience. We still live on this little green and blue ball in a small section of the universe — together.

“Words: So innocent and powerless as they are, as standing in a dictionary, how potent for good and evil they become in the hands of one who knows how to combine them” — Nathaniel Hawthorne

“The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit.” — Proverbs 18:21

10/2013

I say that almost reluctantly. I know it’s hip, cool, or whatever word is used these days, but it’s awkward. Twitter is great for those people who have things pop in their heads and they just like to spout it off, but I’m more of a pipe-smoker. I have to think about something before I say it and therefore a simple tweet becomes a struggle. I type it, think about it, erase it, type, think, erase… after going through this a few times, I just drop it.

Twitter has become a popular form of social media, particularly among young people. Just as the youthful crowd was the first to move from MySpace to Facebook, often with the goal of escaping the prying eyes and gathering of parents and grandparents, they have migrated to this form of social media where they can tweet off any thought which comes to mind. With a language of its own, Twitter can sometimes be daunting to new users.

I ventured to this place under the direction of John Locke, who was the first independent author to ever sell over one million downloads. Following his “How to” instructions, I set up a Twitter account to build a following and hoping, along with apparently hundreds of thousands of other independent authors, to find readers for my books.

After being on Twitter for more than two years, it just hasn’t panned out that way and I find myself visiting the Twitter-world less and less often. Admittedly, my lack of success with Twitter Marketing largely has to do with my failure to implement the strategies which were suggested and are followed by most of the independent authors who use it. With over sixteen-hundred followers (small beans compared to most tweeters), you would think there would be at least a few who might be tempted to buy my books, but the problem with marketing on Twitter is that you have to buy into the whole idea of self-promotion for it to work.

Another problem with Twitter is that it is easy to find and follow people just like you, but not always so easy to build a diversified base. So, I’ve fallen into this Twitter Abyss, where ninety percent of the people who follow me are the very authors in which I find myself in competition with for readership, which wouldn’t be bad if the only goal was to find people with whom I could relate or when building a support network. However, when the goal is to find readers or market your work, this isn’t exactly the type of following one might desire

My Twitter feed is full of “Buy My Book” tweets from other independent authors who are all there for the same reason. I get so inundated by these endless pleas and painful reminders I am just a small fish in a giant pond; it just doesn’t capture me. Don’t get me wrong, it can be entertaining from time to time, but I can’t spend hours on it or even drop what I’m doing to check the feed.

Call me a dreamer, call me naive, paint me old fashioned, or simply call me stupid, but I can’t buy into the endless, non-stop, ticker-type stream of self-promotion. I don’t want people to buy my book because I bothered them until they did. In this world of videos and news stories gone viral, I want to be known for writing something which creates such an emotional impact it develops a groundswell of grassroots support. Obviously, I haven’t achieved that, but I can still hope. I want success upon its own merits. If the work isn’t good enough to gather that kind of support, then it simply isn’t good enough.

I still believe in readers. I believe in ‘real’ readers, book lovers, who get so caught up in a story, or are so moved with passion, that they can’t help but tell others about the experience. People like me who talk about how a story impacted them or are blown away that the author was able to paint such vivid pictures in their mind or develop characters who actually come alive.

I know they are out there, waiting for just the right story. I read it in the reviews of books I like. The same stories which touch me touch them. So, how do I find them? The only way I know how. I keep striving to write that special story which captures their hearts and loosens their tongues in a way that they just can’t contain how they feel about it. It may take several tries. There may be six, eight, ten, twelve books or more published before I find the right one. I’m not afraid of being a one hit wonder. If I can write a book which gets talked about like To Kill A Mockingbird or Catcher In The Rye (which I actually never cared for), I’ll be happy. Sure, Harper Lee only wrote one book, but everyone knows that one title. J.D. Salinger may only be known for one book, written in 1951, but it still sells an average of 250,000 copies per year.

Hey, I don’t want to sound like Negative Nelly here. There are some great things about Twitter, Facebook, and any of those other social media platforms. I’ve reconnected with friends from high school and college. I’ve met some really wonderful people. I have developed what I consider to be close friendships with people I’ve never even met. I’ve come across interesting topics and conversation. Through those interactions, I’ve learned so much more than I would have on my own. I’ve been exposed to other independent authors and come to realize there is incredible talent out there. I can’t even remember the last time I bought a book from a mainstream author.

So, yeah, I’m on Twitter, and you are more than welcome to follow me (@celemieux), though rather than endless tweets about my books you are more likely to find quotes I like or humorous stabs at my kids. I slip in a reminder about my books once in a while, but it won’t be an endless feed of self-promotion. It may even be a little boring compared to what you can find on Twitter. But I’ll engage if you engage, and I’ll keep looking for those illusive readers. I’ll stick with my naive and old fashioned ideas about what makes a book popular. To me it starts with the work and ends with the reader. If the reader finds value, it will get their vote, and if they do not find value, it is time to try again.

By the way, “Buy My Book, There’s Something About Henry. It’s on Amazon.”