I am suffering from social media overload. I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed and I think it's time that something has to give. As an anonymous blogger I live in two worlds. One world where I use my real life name and connect with my real life friends. And another world where I use the pseudonym My New Normal and I connect with my virtual friends. There is almost no overlap between these two worlds.
Both worlds are equally as real to me and equally as important. I often think that without this blog and the connections I've made here, I would never have been able to get through the loss of my son. Grief isn't really something we talk about in polite society and having this space to get it all out and make connections has been a vital lifeline.
I opened up a twitter account and a facebook page for this blog as a way to make even more connections. In the beginning it was all very exciting. But as time goes on it's feeling more and more like a burden. I've got my real life social media networks to manage, like facebook and email. Then I've got this blog and it's social media networks to manage as well. It's all getting to be too much.
So after much deliberation I've decided to shut down Finding My New Normal's facebook page. To be honest, I just don't see the value in having a facebook page for this blog. With twitter, I find I connect with lots of other women in similar situations as I am and have found some great blogs to read. I've made connections that are very valuable. I also have found that having a twitter page brings me more readers to this blog.
With the facebook page I've not had the same experience. I set things up so that posts I write here will automatically post over there. However, I noticed that this doesn't always happen. Sometimes a long time goes by with no posts, and then they all dump on the same day. Something that I know would be annoying to anyone following on facebook. I've also not noticed nearly as much interaction as I get here or on twitter. And I get almost no traffic coming from facebook to this page.
Perhaps I've been doing it wrong, but it just seems like a whole lot of extra time for not very much return. I'll wait about a week before pulling the plug to give people time to find me here and on twitter, but then that's it.
How about you? Do you have a facebook page or twitter page for your blog? If so, do you find value in them? Have you shut down any social network pages associated with your blog before? If so, why did you do it?
Dealing with the loss of a child is never easy, but it's even more difficult when you are an expat living far from home. Life will never be "normal" again and so now the challenge is to find my new normal. I am now back in the USA and the proud parent of two daughters, born using two different egg donors. "Frostina" and "Olea" are the loves of my life and I feel so grateful for the amazing women who donated their eggs and made my family possible.
I never set up a Facebook page for my blog. For me, I never found it important to do so. I'm a semi anonymous blogger and I don't do giveaways that require a FB page. I have a hard enough time managing my blog, without adding more to it.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure you won't notice a hiccup when you dump it. Your regular readers will remain the same. :)
I agree with Tiffany. At times I feel that we are surrendering the most valuable thing we have--our time--in the search of "connections," while the deepest ones are to be found within our physical reach. More and more of us are realizing that there is a dangerous balance between our vaporous screen lives and our real ones. If we plunge too deeply into the virtual world, we risk losing our true selves.
ReplyDeleteI love blogging and my blog, but I have never set up either Twitter or FB for it. I don't want it to become "work" for me, I want blogging to remain my enjoyable outlet and, like you experienced, I think I would get overwhelmed with all of that. I am glad to hear your comments about Twitter though. I set up an account but have never used it and think about doing it now and then. Maybe time to start...
ReplyDeletei understand. sometimes all of the social media can end up being a burden rather than a help.
ReplyDeletei thought about setting up a fb page for my blog, but most people were connected to my real fb so it just seemed like a duplication of efforts. then i closed down my personal fb page a few months ago because i was having social overload anyway.
being pg with our rainbow and now having her here i've just needed to be a bit more private in order to deal with all of the emotions. but like you, right after losing Julius i needed all of the connections that fb offered.
I don't have a Facebook page for my blog. I didn't really think of setting one up. I didn't know you had a page either. I'll have to look for you on twitter though I admit I'm not much of a tweeter.
ReplyDeleteI don't have an FB page for my blog, or my book, (and I know I should for the latter). I am with you - there's just too much social networking stuff. I am currently trying to ignore the growing number of people I know on Pinterest. I didn't get into Twitter till last year, and it's been helpful to me as an expat writer but it can sometimes be a complete time suck!
ReplyDeleteI don't have a Facebook page for my blog and have never felt I'm missing out. I do use Facebook but that's for the "real life" me and "real life" friends. On my blog and on Twitter I'm anonymous and I like it that way. I have nothing to hide but I do love the freedom I get from being anonymous on the internet.
ReplyDeleteInteresting that many people I know are rethinking their interaction on social media for exactly the same reason as you. I think it depends on your expectations and aims - for me the whole blog/Facebook/twitter is work and separate from my private social media, and on that basis it works for me - it's all part of the work day, although I admit to doing far less than I used to!!! Maybe social media has reached it's peak, certainly for those of us who have been using it for a while. Good luck - think you're making the right decision for you!
ReplyDeleteI have never set up either fb or twitter. My blog is mainly for me and for whoever comes across it with their sorrows and their needs. Also, while I use a pseudonym on my blog I have lots of IRL people reading my blog. It's not a secret from my real life...but it is somewhere in between...
ReplyDeleteI only have the blog.. no FB for it or twitter. I am not a fan of the face but have an account there that I never use.. there are many days when I think if deactivating that one too...
ReplyDeleteMy FB page is less than a month old but I've noticed that membership there is growing at a snails pace compared twitter and m blog. However, I've found that people who know me (friends & family) opt for FB option and other bloggers and people I meet along they way opt for the blog membership and twitter.
ReplyDelete