kung fu grippe

weselec:

Granted, having a public following can be meaningful for more than social reasons, which a relatively public figure may have, but if you’re there to be social, and that’s largely the way you use the network, what’s the point of leaving the gate open at all?

Is the issue simply that the signal-to-noise when you already reach a large audience is too low to ever be worth wading through?

Good points and a great question.

0: Personally? I mostly avoid @ responses from people I don’t follow. Truth is, the retoots and the “Huh?”s and thus and such way way way drown out the occasional hilarious or brilliant or wonderfully (intelligently) withering take-downs. The value’s just not there for me.

Plus I get…[checking]…over a hundred of ‘em per day. That’s way more than I can do anything sane with. So, mostly I don’t.

1: When I do find someone awesome in @ responses, can you guess what I do? Yep. I follow them. Or at least, I’ll definitely star them as a howdy and a high five.

Only the A Team gets to come inside the tent, and only if they have something swell to add. But, it better be good. This isn’t Everybody Gets a Ribbon Day.

2: I was mostly responding to a recent spate of posts from people I like and respect on Tumblr (and Twitter) who seem to suffer (invite?) an inordinate amount of heartache by repeatedly absorbing the opinions of strangers. I don’t do that any more. And I humbly recommend similar to other folks.

3: As far as I’m concerned, “social” is a word that used to have a much more precise and useful meaning.

Primarily it referred to our relationships with direct acquaintances and (real world) friends. That’s what it means to me. I am social with people I know and like. Which feels healthy and sustainable.

And, sure, yeah: social also means talking with and listening to people you don’t know yet. Be civil to people, hear others out, and be humble about accepting both advice, criticism, and legitimate attempts at direct communication. I do that. I believe in that.

But.

4: What I can’t afford to do — and I deeply hope you guys also won’t even attempt to do — is to live in a world of unlimited access (in- or outbound) that requires you to pretend anyone who happens to trip over your doormat should get precisely the same attention, respect, interest, and focus as Real People You Know. They come first. Scarcity. It’s a real thing.

Because that way lies utter madness and, frankly, it makes a charade of your actual life.

Interrupting your focus on your own work, family, and friends in order to harvest anonymous compliments or deflect anonymous dumbassery does a disservice to everyone involved and is, in my opinion, an utterly depressing and unscalable way to slouch through life.

I can only ever say what I know and believe. It doesn’t mean everyone should do it. That goes without saying. I hope. I wish.

But, I do know that we’re each responsible for maintaining a balanced and grown-up approach to who gets the red carpet on demand. And, to my mind, it’d be a miserable and uncentered travesty of a life if that ever became something any adult felt the need to defend, footnote, or apologize for on anything like a regular basis.

Yet, here we are. Welcome to the Social.

Source: merlin