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[galadhir]

I have just joined Bluesky, but it does seem to be very worthy and very focused on the big issues of real life, so I don't know how long I'll last over there.

I'm doing it again already, spreading myself too thin. That's it now. No other sites of social media allowed. I already know I can't keep up with one, let alone two. (Or three, in fact, since my non-writing real life friends and activities are all on Facebook.)

Comments

[julesjones]

I spend most of my time on Mastodon, although I keep thinking I need to post more on Dreamwidth. I have mostly abandoned BlueSky, a combination of the algorithm and the age verification which I refuse to do. I suspect that I don't see a lot of the stuff I would like to see, and other people don't see me. I look at it a couple of times a week to see what my friends there are up to, but I'm mostly not bothering to post.

I did use Fedica to cross-post and it was useful for composing a thread before posting, but I still have to manually edit separate threads for Bluesky and Mastodon if I want to use Mastodon's longer post lengths. Might still cross-post some of the fountain pen wittering, but possibly just to point at a DreamWidth edition of long Mastodon threads.

The terribly serious stuff has started to permeate Mastodon because of [waves arms around] everything, but it's still very possible to filter stuff out and in to minimise stuff, and people seem more inclined to use content warnings.

[galadhir]

I did spent a happy time on Mastodon while I was permaculturing my garden :) I joined Sunbeam.city, which is the best place to find anarchists who know how to brew fertilizer tea. But then I moved on from gardening, because I only have a three to five year attention span, and didn't really fit there any more.

I keep hoping I'll find that one platform I can stand to build a community and a readership for my books, but I just don't think I'm wired up that way, and it always falls off. It's like masking, I can't pretend to be an author all the time, when most of the time I'm just me. (If that makes any sense?) Most of the time I just don't have anything useful, relevant or witty to say about anything. I just want to be able to talk about my fanfic and belly dancing and stuff and not to have to incessantly talk about books or politics.

[julesjones]

You'd probably be a lot better off on Mastodon, then - I think it's much easier to talk about that stuff and not politics or books, although you need to be careful about curating your feed to start with. It's a nice way to just socialise with people online, without having to do "look at me, buy my books". (Most of the time if you don't look at my bio you won't even realise I'm a writer. Or *was* a writer.) If you do want to do a bit of talk about writing then one of the daily post prompts can be fun, both to think about what to say yourself and to see what other writers come up with. You can still use your account on sunbeam.city even if you don't really talk about gardening there now.

[galadhir]

I have to admit that of all the social media sites I've been on, the ones I miss most are Livejournal and Mastodon. So now I'm on Dreamwidth, which is like LJ, and maybe going back to Mastodon is a good idea. I've still got my account there. I'll try it! Thank you :)

Also are you not writing any more? Is that a deliberate decision or are you too in the grips of the m/m burnout?

[julesjones]

Medical problems. I had severe RSI for several years which made it almost impossible to write. I had a short period when I'd recovered enough to do some writing, and then my normal mild monthly migraine flipped into *severe* migraine continuously for a year and a half, followed by another year and a half of merely having it most of the time. I actually wrote large chunks of two novels during the three months I was off on sick leave, all on paper, because there was very little else I could do. Monitors and TVs *hurt* to look at. Then I finally managed to crawl back to work, but didn't have the spoons to write and hold down a full time job. I'm doing a lot better now, and did finish one of those novels a year or so back, and was about to submit it to an agent when Trump happened. And AI...

[galadhir]

Oh dear that sounds terrible! I've had weeklong migraines before and they were bad enough. I can't fathom what it must have been like to have them continuously for two years. I'm so sorry that happened to you and very glad that it's over. And yeah, you'd have to be superhuman to write with all of that and a full time job.

Trump (and Brexit over here) really put a spanner in my desire to write too. Somehow it didn't feel worthwhile any more, in a world where that could happen. But then I reminded myself that Tolkien wrote LotR in the middle of a war against Nazis, and I would never say that wasn't worthwhile. I think people may need human writers even more, in fact, even if it's yet harder for us to be found.

[watervole]

I'd like to see you more often on DW...

[galadhir]

That's very kind :) Thank you!

[pattrose]

Is Bluesky like twitter?

[galadhir]

It's a lot like Twitter, but it seems to be even harder to have a conversation on there because you can't reblog an entry with a comment.

[pattrose]

I would be lost. LOL

[galadhir]

An old friend who I haven't had any contact with for years is on there, so I'm trying it mainly for her. Otherwise I really wouldn't bother.

[kazzy_cee]

Too much social media just sucks away so much time. I barely manage with Lj/DW and Facebook...

[galadhir]

You're so right. I'm supposed to be using social media to promote my books, and every so often I do try, but I know that I hate being advertised to, and I'd rather be writing instead, so I stop.

[mistressofmuses]

I want to be able to use and keep up on Bluesky, but I just haven't been able to!

I really don't know how people do manage to keep up with so much social media! I use DW, and scroll through tumblr. FB just for a handful of family/friends/communities that aren't elsewhere.

I can barely manage that, and other than DW I don't even really make posts or interact very directly most of the time. I don't know how people manage to keep up with instagram/twitter/bluesky/discord/snapchat/reddit/etc.

[galadhir]

From my three day attempt to get on with Bluesky, I'm finding it quite boring, although it's easy to strike up a conversation. In theory I'm supposed to be promoting my books, but I hate doing that and I'm sure everyone else hates it too.

I don't know how people do it either. Do they have extra hours in the day? Perhaps they just don't think about what they type - that would explain a lot. The people I actually know in meat space are all on Facebook, and the groups I belong to - belly dance groups - are on there too, but it's not fun to scroll. DW is so nice because it's not constantly pushing things on you for engagement, but you have to put a bit more work in to continue engaging with it.

I remember even with LJ it was a struggle for me to think of what to post, though I tried to do so twice a week. I should make that an aim again now, and just not worry too much about what I do say.

I'm so glad I'm not on TikTok, having seen some of their memes while I was on Bluesky :)

[mistressofmuses]

I don't think I've ever met an author who enjoyed self-promotion! Everyone seems to hate it, even though it's a necessity, ha. (The people who DO seem to enjoy it tend to be the ones who aren't nearly as interested in the writing itself, and seem to fall more to the grifter 'I make a six-figure income selling low-effort ebooks, and give me more money and I'll teach you to do the same!' side. And I'm not sure they even truly enjoy it.)

Ha, maybe that's it! The lack of thought would explain the general state of social media, haha. I definitely do enjoy the style of DW more. I like having more thoughtful conversations that I don't have to be pressured to respond to lightning-fast.

I try to post fairly often without posting just to post, but sometimes I feel like a lot happens in my life that I can talk about, and other times it feels like there's just nothing going on! I suppose that's not that uncommon, ha.

Oh man. I knew I was forgetting some dominant social media when I was listing them off, and I just couldn't think of what. It was TikTok! I'm so glad I am not on there and have never found it enjoyable. (Even though apparently it means I do miss out on a lot of current stuff.)

[galadhir]

I do sometimes think that the only way to make a living as an author is to run highly priced courses about how to make a living as an author. I'm not going to do that either!

I do like the way DW is set up to allow you to actually journal, rather than just make short quips or post pictures (like Tumblr). When I come back here after a break it's very rewarding to scroll back and see I've written about things that I don't really remember well any more. And then it's nice to get to know other people in the same way. It's much friendlier because you really see other people's lives in a better way.

I've never actually seen TikTok, except for the TikToks that get reposted onto Tumblr. I wish that I had had something to do with BookTok, but I think I've missed that bandwagon :)

[mistressofmuses]

Right? So many "take my courses on how to become a successful author" grifts out there!

But very much true about DW. I like being able to continue a conversation over days or weeks, and not feel like I need to reply instantly. I like tumblr for some things - it's nice for looking at and sharing art from artists I like, or those short quippier things, but that's not really the sort of thing I'm interested in making myself. And DW definitely lends itself to a more personal connection with the people you get to know.

I do love being able to look at my own DW to be reminded of things I've done or thought about. I often forget details about places we've visited, or things we've gone to do. Looking back at my entries here reminds me of a lot of things I would have otherwise forgotten completely!

Yes, I tend to wait for tiktoks to "escape containment" to tumblr or the like, haha. I do sometimes have a bit of FOMO with regards to booktok, because I know that IS where a lot of talk about writing and reading and book releases and events happens, and I feel like I miss out on a lot of it. (Again, until it escapes containment and people start talking about it elsewhere, which often just means the drama parts, haha.)

[watervole]

I'm currently avoiding everything that focuses on big issues.

I can't cope with them.

If Facebook prioritised the pages I actually want to see - my family and my re-enactment groups - then I'd still be there. But it inevitably picks out the entries with lots of comments, ie the ones dealing with painful political issues.

As I can't vote in US elections, I can't do anything about Trump - it all stresses me for no possible gain.

So, I dip in briefly now and then and read individual groups.

[galadhir]

Yes, I mostly use FB because that's where my belly dance groups keep each other updated. So I go to the groups and read the group feeds. I know what you mean about it being full of politics, although at the moment it seems to be full of people shouting about Reform UK.

I have to say that I think the MAGA problem seems to be coming to Britain with Reform, and now is probably the time to stand up for immigrants and queer folk and the disabled by standing against Reform.

If Reform get in, all the problems that make us so depressed about America will be happening in Britain instead. We can't do anything about Trump, but we possibly can do something about Farage. Just imagine the national embarrassment of being ruled over by Nigel Farage and his cabinet of losers!

So yeah. I hate it. I hate that it's become necessary to take a stand in politics, but I'm going to do it anyway because I too don't want to live in a police state.

[watervole]

Reform are nasty - and very bad on climate as well.

Fingers crossed, I may have found a job for a refugee Ukrainian locally.

[galadhir]

Oh that sounds great! Go you :)

[watervole]

Edit note for book - search for 'firelighter in the in its'

[galadhir]

Oh thank you! My proof reader didn't catch that one! I'll have it fixed by the time the paperback comes out. :)

[watervole]

Good to know it got caught in time - I used to edit fanzines, I proof read by instinct.

[julesjones]

Bother. I caught a couple and highlighted them to tell you about, and had forgotten by the time I got home. (Even when I don't have pain/nausea I've often got the more subtle aura effects, including the memory of a drunken goldfish.)

[galadhir]

Oh please don't worry. I actually managed to get it proof read but only after I'd announced it going live, so the chances are that whatever it was has been picked up already. I know what it's like to not be able to remember things. You have my sympathy!

[greetingsfrommaars]

yeah, when i first joined bluesky, i quickly realized that it shares characteristics with twitter that make both platforms draining to me. (originally i thought this effect was specific to twitter.) somewhat good for keeping up with current events, but in a way that gets exhausting. what i've found works for me is to use bluesky as a place where i make posts but never look at my feed - sort of one-way communication only. i hope you find a way to use it (or not) that works for you though!

[galadhir]

I went there this morning and it's too depressing. Admittedly it's depressing with news that I should probably know about, but too much doomscrolling = paralysis and I don't want to get to that point. Why has the world gone mad, and so fast too? Yeah, I think my Bluesky attempt is probably over. I didn't last one month let alone three!

[greetingsfrommaars]

that's totally fair! as you say, it's good to know about things going on, but not in a way that's overwhelming or paralyzing. i don't think it's a balance i've managed to strike yet.