{"id":900,"date":"2016-08-07T10:14:26","date_gmt":"2016-08-07T09:14:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/phenweb.wordpress.com\/?p=900"},"modified":"2025-06-19T19:18:20","modified_gmt":"2025-06-19T18:18:20","slug":"anti-social-media","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/phenweb.co.uk\/es\/anti-social-media\/","title":{"rendered":"Anti-Social Media"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’m a Luddite, a technophobe or just plain old. I don’t get<\/em> social media. I’m not ant-social media or perhaps I am. Clearly that is not strictly true. This is social media or part of it, as are Twitter and Facebook. I have accounts at both I just don’t use them. I mean when this blog is published it gets linked to Twitter, Facebook and my Linked-In profile and of course back to my author pages on Goodreads and Amazon. But that is it. If I don’t post, I barely use the other means.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I do post some limited comments on Goodreads and occasionally re-tweet a like. I have used a small Twitter advert alongside my other woeful attempts at marketing. Other than that the accounts are dormant – I struggle to recall my Facebook log-in<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I just don’t fell the need to tell the world what I am doing every minute of every day. I watch the Millennial generation permanently connected and typing text, Facebook, Whatsapp, etc. I have no idea why they do it or feel the need to share their now non-private lives with anyone who cares.  They exchange their data with all these companies with barely a thought for what is done with it or where it is or why anyone wants to know.  My wife and daughter constantly update and like<\/em> others’ streams, timelines and whatever the profile details are called.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the usual technical support for these and other IT issues, I have no idea how to post a photo onto the timeline. Actually, I do but I cannot be bothered. I don’t want to be tagged in a photo. Actually, as a so-called IT professional I feel I should know all about these systems and how they work, but frankly I do not care. I am far more concerned with infrastructure, databases, networks, system up time, and performance than I am with how to add a comment to a Facebook post.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At work I have email, Intranet, IM and Yammer. Again I struggle to understand why everyone wants to know what I am doing, where I am and what I am working on or even at work, in a meeting or away<\/em>. Of course my boss wants to know and he does. Normally, we meet or I telephone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some people think this is reclusive behaviour, guilty as charged. I just like to think that I like my privacy especially away from formal work. This means that I am doing the role of author all wrong. These days I should be posting and twittering continuously, in the vague hope that all this activity might lead to someone reading my book or even better buying one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PC Pro published an article this month (I’m a subscriber to a physical magazine – as I said a Luddite) stating that ‘eBook sales were stagnant and the technology underpinning them was dull.’ <\/em>It then listed some stats on UK sales from the top five publishers, forgetting about the rest of the world and independent writers in the process. Certainly, the biggest e-book retailer seems to be having few problems. Perhaps the premise was wrong<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I bring this up not just to comment on the article, I might write to them in a handwritten stamped addressed envelope delivered by Royal Mail. They appear not to have a web site not one the magazine lists anyway – they do. They have email, Twitter and of course Facebook. I have dispensed with a dedicated web site. I still have a name and page but my web site is now this blog. A sign of the times or just the sheer effort needed to keep all these systems going. I’m blogging today when I should be writing. I’m reading Goodreads’ forums rather than reading a book or better yet trying to write one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We go to restaurants for company, and the food to find our companions still telling the world that they are in a restaurant and interacting with people that are not there. Still one thing I would have loved when I was a single dating person (neolithic age I think) is Tinder. I used to hate asking a girl to dance, or to buy her a drink, because I was scared of the big No<\/em> rejection. Now I would just have to swipe. Not that I have. I have just watched how it works. Mrs H need have no concerns. This is not an Ashley Madison confessional.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You see I do know about these things. I just don’t use them. They are like a drug and I saw a news article this week about IT Detox. Yes, it was on-line and had hundreds of comments, likes, rather missing the point I thought.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Please of course like this, re-tweet it – I’m not that anti.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’m a Luddite, a technophobe or just plain old. I don’t get social media. I’m not ant-social media or perhaps I am. Clearly that is not strictly true. This is social media or part of it, as are Twitter and Facebook. I have accounts at both I just don’t use them. I mean when this […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[27,89,211,254,525,541,548,585,761,779,824],"class_list":["post-900","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-writing-blogs","tag-amazon","tag-books","tag-e-book","tag-facebook","tag-online-writing","tag-pc-pro","tag-philip-g-henley","tag-publishing","tag-tinder","tag-twitter","tag-writing"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t