6 Reasons to Hate Social Media

I'm really beginning to dislike social media. I have never been convinced that people care what I'm doing at any given time of the day, what I'm eating or about my opinion in general. I wrote two blog posts a while ago: So You Want a Web Presence and Web Presence 2.

Today I decided to list some of the reasons why I'm starting to hate the whole social media thing.

1. It's a time sink.... I'm not one who has Facebook or Twitter on all day. I have other things to do. Frankly, I'm not much interested in what you are doing. Sorry, but I have things I'm trying to get done. People I see in town who want the next book in the Cottonwood series ask me when the next one is coming out. If I spend a lot of time reading what others have posted or tweeted I'm not getting my work done. I have enough problems with that anyway. You should see my counters and laundry room.

2. Junk...Not much of true value is posted. I'm all for reading interesting and vital information. Unfortunately, the web has become a place for people to post things which are not true or are twisted out of all recognition. Then others post insulting and rude comments and these then go back and forth. What waste of time and thought.

3. Apps... I didn't realize that every time I tried a game on my iPad or answered a quiz on facebook it showed up somehow on my facebook account. I've been getting requests for things in games I played once and chucked since I didn't want to play them a second time. Today I spent about ten minutes deleting game apps from my facebook account so I wouldn't get these requests anymore. I had to remove each one separately or all of them at once. There are a couple I am playing, thus the ten minutes.

4. Notifications...Emails from groups I'm in come as soon as someone posts. I've set up a mailbox just for these so they can be scanned and deleted in mass. Maybe there's a way to stop them or have a digest but I'd have to figure it out. I know how to do the mailbox thing so I took the short way rather than the long.

5. Mega-Tweeters... You know, those people who tweet about every five minutes. Either they have staff or they are using canned tweets they've purchased. Yes, they have those and some people suggest to use them at scheduled times to get your name out there to promote yourself so people will buy whatever you are selling. That's a version of spam to me. I don't do or need that.

6. Too many id's and passwords... I know may of the social media sites can now use id's and passwords from other sites, but still it's a pain to have so many. I have a program which stores mine but I have to go to it so very often because I have no clue whether I use my facebook or twitter or some other id. We're told to use different id's and passwords for safety on the web. How can having one id which will let you in any social site be safe. It's confusing.

Don't get me wrong. I think social media is a great way to stay in touch with family and friends. My high school class reunion was this summer and it was fun getting information and seeing people post on the facebook page the organizers set up.

I tweet when I post a blog or have some other new to relate. I have a facebook page to announce the same things. I use the message system with a writer friend. We are both on most afternoons and spur each other on with messages as we write.

Maybe it there was a link between each site to the other I would like it better. I don't know. I can't keep up with what I have to do now. Following twits and posts and pinnings, it's too much for my old brain to manage.

---