I just don't fully understand it yet. But in my defense I am slow on the uptake of some topics, understanding women, understanding the current political structure of our government, and social networking.
Why does it matter how many follows you have? Why does it matter if I follow you that you will follow me back? I pick people for following, friend requests, and liking that I feel I would enjoy interacting with. People who have similar interests as mine, as least as much as I can figure out from their profiles.
On Goodreads I base it off of how many books a person has read, and what books they have read, and sometimes what country they are from.
My assumptions are that the more books a person has read, probably that person is more knowledgeable and intelligent.
The books a person reads gives me some insight into what they like to read and how open minded that person might be.
What country they are from because I would like to make connections with people from different countries and hopefully somebody will try one of my books and start telling their friends how awesome the books was.
On other sights I connect with editors, fellow writers, readers, and anybody who I feel I might be able to make a connection with on some level.
Very few people ever actually send you a message and make a connection with you. I know at the other end of all my e-connections is a living breathing, thinking person and we all are bombarded with information from multiple sources every day. Everybody's mind sets and mental concept of reality is going to different to some degree based off what they see, read and hear. Based off of where they live and their culture. Based off religious beliefs, education, and family background and the environment they were raised in. We all will not mesh, or see things in the same manner. We will not all get along.
There are those who use it for a social media outlet as it was designed to be used. I have made some wonderful connections via the internet, from my angelic inspired Editor, to book reviewers, people who do and post author interviews, and some very nice fans that not only read but like the stuff I happen to write.
There are also a lot of very angry disturbed people with a lot of free time on their hands. There are those who bombard you with mean menacing repetitive posts or e-mails to buy their stuff. I do mention my books from time to time, suggest them to some readers, but for the most part I try to offer interesting, upbeat, fun stuff, that I feel people may enjoy reading.
I am an incurable smart ass, cynical, devil's advocate, and love great and compelling conversation. I, like my daughter, will many times take up an opposing viewpoint, even one I don’t' necessarily agree with to engage another person. I don't do it to be mean, but to learn, see if they know why they believe what they believe. It is one thing to have a mind set about something, but if you can't back it up with real live truth and knowledge, what good is it!
I also truly strive to look at everything from multiple open viewpoints, think outside the box, and ask way too many questions. It helps with understanding things in a multi dimensional way rather than just off the surface. Maybe we should try to interact a bit more deeply with our multitude of connections, get under the surface of who that person is. Go far quality of connection instead of quantity.
The haters and nasty people, delete them, un-follow them , and forget them. Eventually if we all adopt the same mind set with the nasty peoples, the only ones they will have to talk with will be the other nasty peoples. One can only hope.
Not so educational but probably insightful about me. Tied in to the other posts I have done and with some self introspection on your part hopefully this has been insightful in challenging your own mental mindsets.
A clergy man, years ago, came upon another gentlemen walking along a road in Virginia. After talking with the man for a while he was sure the gentleman was a botanist because of his knowledge of plants and trees. They walked and talked and later the clergy man changed his mind and realized this person must be an architect because of his knowledge of buildings and structures. Then again he changed his mind to believe this person was a fellow clergy man like himself. Finally he found out the man was a representative of the new government. The man with whom the clergy man was talking to happened to be Thomas Jefferson!
"I cannot live without books." Thomas Jefferson.
If you haven't figured it out yet I am a huge fan of this unique individual!
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1 comments:
Thomas, social media should be how readers connect with the author to find out more about them. It builds a possible audience for the present and the future.
Remember, most readers buy from those recommended by others. By making contacts you broaden your horizons as far as readers go. Mainly beyond close friends and family, across the miles to strangers you may never meet.
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