When it comes to twitter I’ve yet to understand what all the fuss is about. That could have something to do with the fact that I haven’t tweeted in months or my oh-so-slow dial-up connection that I’m helpless to do anything about. (No pity please it’s just one of the fallbacks from living in rural Nova Scotia)Tying up your phone line while you tweet your little heart out is annoying to those who actually want to speak to you in person. Just ask my kids. Not to mention you spend ridiculous amounts of time waiting for these sites to load.
Let me be honest: maybe I don’t understand what’s so fabulously great about twitter because I’m the lamest tweeter on the planet. Oh, yeah, I’ve thought about that a time or two.
But wait, I can’t be THAT bad. Twitter’s been trying to reel me back in for months now with little messages that arrive in my inbox. @_____________just retweeted @____________. I also get lists of people who are simply tweeting. So thanks, twitter, for pointing out the obvious. You’re twitter. People tweet. I get that. It’s how it was meant to be. Not to be mean twitter, but I’m not really interested in missed tweets—not to be confused by those who are mistweeted because mistweeting others is definitely NOT cool. (Sorry, I couldn’t resist!)
On the other side of the coin, with the little bit I’ve been on twitter in the past, I’ve actually met some pretty cool people. Some of them have gone on to become facebook friends. Imagine the potential if I was tweeting on a regular basis! I know people who absolutely LOVE twitter. When they’re home they stayed signed in all the time. The moment something happens they’re letting the rest of the world know.
I sometimes think I spent too much time in the world of make-believe. I’ve committed to spend more time writing this year in an attempt to increase my productivity. Right now that seems to be where I need to put my time. Some people seem able to do it all–tweet, blog, facebook all while churning out spectacular novels. Sometimes I wish I was one of those people, but I’m not. I’d have to stay up around the clock in order to keep up. There are SO many online sites these days, I’m simply not able to keep up with them all. But I’m not going to lose any sleep over it. That just wouldn’t make sense.
I’ve got to be honest though; those little reminders from twitter might actually be working. I’ve been thinking of logging in just to see what’s up. That doesn’t mean I’ll sacrifice my writing time. Maybe it’s a matter of finding the right balance if in fact that “right balance” even exists, but for right now you can be sure I’m still tweetless in Dalhousie.
Are you regularly on twitter? If you’re a writer do you find it a struggle to find the right balance between social media sites and writing? Or like me, are you tweetless for the time being?
Laura Best 
Linda Cassidy Lewis
/ January 18, 2013Those messages reeled me in too, Laura. But it appears that very few of my old Twitter friends are there anymore—or if they are, they must be only lurking. Maybe I’m wrong, but I got the idea Twitter is not such a big deal for writers anymore. A link to my blog posts is automatically tweeted when I publish them, but I get very few hits from Twitter nowadays—unless everyone’s visiting via smartphone, which is not logged by WordPress.
Anyway, you’re probably not missing much. I think our time is better spent writing.
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Laura Best
/ January 18, 2013I started to see that so many who followed me were writers simply looking to promote their books and it kind of turned me off. There were some who constantly tweeted nothing except links to their books, It was obvious why they had started following me, Now, I rarely follow other writers unless it’s a name I recognize ,either from the local writing community or, through blogging. Of course it doesn’t matter a whole lot since I’m not on there. Maybe this weekend I’ll get brave.
I do agree that our time is definitely better spent writing.
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Lynn A. Davidson
/ January 18, 2013I wasn’t tweeting much for awhile, just popping in occasionally, but I’ve been there more lately. My problem is that the ones I want to see are lost in the crowd, and I don’t know how to sort them out from the masses. I was enjoying the connection until I lost … connection, due to so many twitterbugs whose tweets are rather useless to me.
As for dread-awful dial-up, I wonder if a router would increase your speed? Even though we have high speed internet now because of Cross Country TV and Internet here in NS, we got a router so I could have wireless for my e-reader, my iPhone (for FaceTime – which I keep mistakenly calling FaceTalk!), and for anyone who wants to use their laptop while at my house. I think it has even sped up my internet connection. Maybe that is worth a try? Don’t buy the cheapest one, get a middle to high range for quality.
Writing … these days mine consists mostly of blogging and emails, and I’m way behind in those.
I, for one, have missed you on Twitter, Laura. I have hoped it’s because you are busy churning out another wonderful book for us to read. 🙂
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Laura Best
/ January 19, 2013I’m not sure how a router would help, Lynn, since the our Internet comes through the phoneline. Our only option here for “high speed” (which apparently isn’t all that fast) is to have an antenna and get a signal off the towers Eastlink installed. Unfortunately, the trees across the road are interferring with that signal and we could be hooked up. They no longer provide a pole for users as they did in the beginning. If we want one we were told it would cost $4000. A bit much for my budget, and for poor service. Where we are situated, we barely receive a cell phone signal. My kids all know what spots in the house they are likely to get one. Sometimes it’ll take hours for a text to reach them. I think the only thing we can do is hope they come up with a better system. The government did promise high-speed to every living in Nova Scotia.
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Lynn A. Davidson
/ January 18, 2013Linda, I didn’t know WordPress doesn’t count views through Smart Phones! That could explain a lot.
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Linda Cassidy Lewis
/ January 19, 2013Lynn, don’t take my comment as gospel. Now that you questioned it, I realize I can’t remember where I read that. It might have been just speculation. (But I’d like it to be true, so I could convince myself I have more blog visitors.)
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serenitywriter
/ January 19, 2013I haven’t tweeted much in a long time, like other writers, I have to write. And when I do look in on twitter, it’s a lot of quotes, a lot of links to other blogs and books I don’t want to spend too much time reading. I do every so often, but I recognize I’m not their ideal follower/tweeter. And like you, I to have met some very cool people in the past, and I’m sure I will in the future, after I’ve finished writing. 🙂
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Laura Best
/ January 19, 2013Absolutely, Jess. I cringe when I think of the time I’ve wasted in the past,not so much on twitter, but other social media sites. when I could have been writing. But I’m pulling back and committing to what’s most important to me.Hopefully, it won’t take me four years to publish my next book. 🙂
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pattisj
/ January 19, 2013I signed up to see what it was all about, but haven’t made the first tweet, and I’ve not checked on others. I have enough going on between the blog and Facebook.
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Laura Best
/ January 19, 2013Agreed, Patti. Blogging and Facebook do take up quite a bit of time. Too bad we couldn’t clone ourselves. 😉
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Heather Wright
/ January 19, 2013I often find blog articles that I like and share them with Twitter, and I send an update when I post to my blog, but I don’t do a lot else. I was on it much more in the early days when I had a smaller group of connections and it was more like a conversation. I’ve found that many other writers only want to share links to buying their books or quotes, all of which are generated by software with no person actually at the computer when the tweets go out. I did a lot of culling a while ago and have promised myself that I will do some more. I do get the odd visitor to my website from it, so I’m going to hang onto my Twitter account for a little longer.
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Laura Best
/ January 19, 2013This has turned me off as well, but I’m thinking of started up a little to see if anything has improved. I’m more selective of who I follow back and that could make a difference. Like you, I want to communicate with real people.
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Florence Fois
/ January 19, 2013Laura, I am “tweet-less” and not so very concerned. I make lame attempts now and again … but mostly I don’t enjoy or engage it often. Social network can be a giant time suck and we need to balance that we are need to work on what counts 🙂
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Laura Best
/ January 19, 2013I’m still waiting to make a lame attempt, Florence. I still haven’t ventured out there. The truth is, I’ve been spending a lot of time writing. It just makes more sense for the time being.
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cluculzwriter
/ January 20, 2013I try to keep up too, but it’s so hard. I must confess I’m lousy at twitter and facebook, or facefarse, as Khalanie likes to put it. I have a large number of blogger friends and I keep in contact. I’ve even reduced my blogging time down to once a week, unless I’m helping an author promote their work. Best part, all this has prompted me to get back to my WIP. I’ve got 7,000 words just this month already! It took 16 months just to get down 39K.
You’re wise to move with the flow, Laura. It gets too hectic otherwise.
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Laura Best
/ January 20, 2013Congrats on the progress you’re making, Joylene. I’ve been very please these past weeks with the way my story is haping up aw well. A writer should never sacrifice their writing time. It’s just too important.
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C.B. Wentworth
/ January 21, 2013I go on Twitter once or twice a day. I have a few people I like to check on every day because they post great quotes. Other than that, I can’t quite figure out how people spend hours tweeting!
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Laura Best
/ January 21, 2013I’m still stalling C.B. Haven’t yet made the plunge. My life isn’t very exciting, I suppose that’s why I can’t spend much time tweeting. I don’t feel as though I have anything worthwhile to tweet. Maybe that will change, but I’m bot counting on it. 🙂
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