Week 5 - Antisocial Media

 

Week 5 update: Did much better. I’m over whatever illness I had, got all bills covered, wrapped up and returned a paid assignment, and made some progress on both my current projects. I’d gotten stuck on the detective story, so I switched over to the romance, which prompted Mr. Subconscious to blast some inspiration my way and got the detective story going again. Type one, do the other longhand, I can handle that. Except when I took both drafts to the library to type and get printouts of the detective story (for better editing), Mr. Subconscious suddenly decided he wanted me to type up and print out the romance draft instead. So now my focus is back on that. With the paid work done and nothing else in the queue right now, I should be able to ease myself back into doing both. As long as I’m writing something that may eventually see publication. That’s the important thing.

Now that I’ve got more time and the weather’s cleared up, I’ve started an experiment of writing in public. My goal is to take at least one day a week and write in each of the county’s public libraries. Even if I don’t get much work done, it still gets me out of the house and moving around. And I get to run the car, which is also finally working again. I’m keeping to the libraries closest to home for the time being. The ones on the fringes I’ll save for spring and summer, when the weather’s better and there’s more daylight to drive in.

I’ve made another significant change which should help increase my productivity. That’s the subject of this week’s blog.

$$$$

I had to think about how I wanted to present this. It involves a business owner I’ve been following on YouTube. I’ve mentioned his name before on this blog, admittedly as clickbait to hopefully get views. However, this particular story is about me and my own personal journey, and I don’t want to distract from that. So no names this time around. If I decide to write a blog specifically about the overall situation from an observer’s viewpoint, then I’ll name names and include a label for “clickbait.” Blogs of that nature should be left for closer to a book’s release date so I can take advantage of the borrowed attention. That’s how we roll in the 2000s.

Anyway, the business owner in question was doing a livestream, with a chat for us viewers to comment. He’s currently under attack from others in his industry, apparently for having too much initial success. Hey, it’s the Internet. Anyway, he announced for the New Year that he’s not going to participate in any online feuds or drama, but focus instead on his business and serving his customers. Which is one of my reasons for tuning in. I need to learn how to market my writing, and this guy is one hell of a marketer. And yeah, I like his product, and his vision, and his obvious enthusiasm.

His followers, not so much.

I’ve left comments on his posts before, and made comments on the live chat. This most recent time, I posted a remark. It was meant as a joke. I even added a smiley face to indicate that. I forgot that humor and having a sense thereof were among the first casualties of the online culture wars.

I got two reactions from my fellow fans. One of them laughed along with me. The other…got triggered. Violently. He Internet-screamed at me in all caps: “WHAT THE HELL DOES THAT EVEN MEAN???? DO YOU PEOPLE EVEN THINK BEFORE YOU SAY SOMETHING????” Seriously. Full meltdown mode. I shrugged him off as a nutjob and didn’t respond.

Others did. The overall gist was to soothe poor Mr. McTriggered and his offended sensibilities. “Don’t worry about them, they’re just a troll using buzzwords and looking for attention.” The poster who’d laughed along with me was also labeled a troll.

Are you kidding me? I made a joke and this wackadoo was ready to lynch me, and others in the chat were backing him up. I stopped commenting, hung back and observed. Mr. McTriggered later picked a fight with another commentator who made the mistake of criticizing someone Mr. McTriggered supported. They both got mild warnings from the mods.

And I let all this upset me. I don’t even remember what the business owner talked about. I’d just been virtually punched in the face for making a joke and the general consensus from the other participants was that my assailant was justified.

I brooded over this for at least a day, and finally had a breakthrough: How is any of this helping me get my work done? I’ve got books to write so I can deal with the bills I’ve got to pay. I don’t need this shit.

Especially not from people like Mr. McTriggered. If I knew he was a teenager or even college age I could handle it. But in this particular industry and its fandom there’s a better than average chance he’s a white male over 30. Or 40. Or older. Screaming at a total stranger for (in his estimation) attacking the business owner. Who, I also realized, doesn’t give a rat’s ass about either of us personally, just the money in our wallets. Which is as it should be. He’s got his own bills to pay, including salaries for the crew he’s employing. His focus needs to be on himself and how to keep his business going, otherwise he’s up the creek.

Which is where I could be soon if I don’t get off my ass and focus on my own chosen goals, and stop wasting time getting butthurt over loonies hiding behind a screen.

I’ve never been on Facebook or Twitter. I won’t be joining either. I’m still signed up with a writers’ forum, though I stepped away for a while for personal reasons. I had a troll on there too at one point. I have no idea why they targeted me. I ignored them and eventually they left, both me and the site in general. I was on a group fiction blog for about five years, which was great until one of the other members started bullying others and wrecked it. My only presence online is currently this blog, which has no followers. That’s okay. I have no books to market…yet. Besides, it’s cheaper than therapy.

Also, as of this week, I’m done following the business owner. I’m not withdrawing my financial support, because I do like what he puts out. But I don’t need to watch a two-hour livestream about his personal opinions or commercials for his upcoming products. That’s time I can better put to use fulfilling my own goals. He does occasional videos with business advice and interviews with professional writers and other creative people. Those I’ll tune in for because I can learn from them. I won’t be participating in any more chats. I learned that lesson too.

As I said earlier, the business owner started this year by removing himself from Internet drama. I’m going to follow his example and concentrate on more important things, like being successful. Then I can attract my own following of fanatics and trolls. That’s fine; I don’t mind if they fight among themselves. I’ll just go on working, telling the stories I want to tell and trying to grow as a writer and a person. Though I will need to figure out how to market my books without any Internet presence. Eh. Cross that bridge when I get there. See you next week.