Brains? Yum!

For January's IWSG post, I talked about potentially expanding my social media presence, and you all were so helpful in sharing what you do and how you use social media. I noticed many of you mentioned being on lots of different platforms but feeling badly about not really utilizing them to their fullest. Then blogging buddy Patricia Stoltey mentioned this great post by James Scott Bell, where he asks about social media, "Are you using it, or is it using you?"

My biggest takeaway from Bell's Social Media is Eating Your Brain? I'm not crazy. 

"Here's the truth: social media is eating your brain, affecting your ability to concentrate and work deeply, and sabotaging the quality of your fiction - which is the one thing you cannot afford to have sabotaged if you want a long-term career!"

I've noticed over the last few years that my ability to concentrate has deteriorated. I thought it was just a fact of getting older or something like that. I used to write and/or read a book for hours. Now I'm lucky if I get through half an hour before becoming fidgety and reaching for my computer, my phone. 

"I noticed that I'd only get through a few pages in a book before I'd feel like checking Twitter or Feedly or some news sites. I was losing the ability to "get lost" in a book, one of the main pleasures of reading."

If I'm already struggling to concentrate on my writing and my reading, do I really want to add another social media platform? I don't think so. Bell recommends going with the one platform you really enjoy. So I'll be sticking with blogging and just stretching myself a bit over on Goodreads. Hmm, writing about writing and talking about books? Those are two social media outlets I can totally get into.  

*****

Are you rethinking how you use social media? Have you been using it more, really getting into it and enjoying it, or have you been dragging your feet, like a kid going to the dentist? Have you read James Scott Bell's article in full? I recommend it!