Yep. This. All of this. Said literally almost all of this to a friend the other day. I won’t join anything else and will be with the shit ones I’ve been with since the beginning until they die. And I won’t mourn them when/if it happens thanks to Elon, Zuck or the internet apocalypse.
Feeling a lot of the same feelings on social media and have been on a lot less lately but also got on Threads. I didn’t auto follow all the my instagram followers and am trying to connect with the other writers I enjoyed interacting with on Twitter there but trying to find them is a little more chaotic/time consuming. Mostly want to be on social media less though so I get this!
Yes, to all of this! I loved old school Twitter and made genuine life long friends there and found most of my first paid writing jobs there. It was great for me, personally and professionally, and I don't want to quit there (as much as I hate Elon and what it has become). I like Twitter because it was the writer's medium on social media (images are fine but you didn't need them in the way you do for Instagram) and I found so many writer's I love there. I don't have the bandwidth or desire to Spill, BlueSky, Thread, Twitter, Mastadon, etc... but I also want to grow the audience for my Substack and I'm not totally sure how to do that without cross posting my work to other platforms.
I know - it's not ideal. I will say, I do think most newsletter growth comes from within the app and via word of mouth. I've never seen huge numbers of people come to me via me sharing on Insta or Twitter?
I guess that is true. My newsletter is less than a year old, so I would say the bulk of my first couple of hundreds of subscribers came from people who followed me on Twitter and Instagram, so perhaps I'm giving that more weight than it actually is in terms of growth.
(Also, ugh, why does it still feel so hard/gross to talk about wanting to grow my Substack? I think I have some lingering good girl coding that makes saying out loud that I want more people to read my stuff feel uncomfortable).
I quit Twitter when I saw on the news that Elon Musk was buying it--that same exact day. I didn't have much of a presence on there, so it wasn't much of a loss for me. I rarely post on Instagram anymore (I made exceptions for when Momfluenced and Fat Talk arrived though), and usually only use Facebook to network shelter cats. I completely get how a writer needs what certain platforms offer, but I'm a nobody, and an old one at that--I just don't have the time or patience for one more thing that I'm just going to quit later! When I heard about Threads, my first response was "Nope," and still is.
Oh god, just all of this.
Thank you. So exhausted by all of it. I love the honesty here.
Yep. This. All of this. Said literally almost all of this to a friend the other day. I won’t join anything else and will be with the shit ones I’ve been with since the beginning until they die. And I won’t mourn them when/if it happens thanks to Elon, Zuck or the internet apocalypse.
Feeling a lot of the same feelings on social media and have been on a lot less lately but also got on Threads. I didn’t auto follow all the my instagram followers and am trying to connect with the other writers I enjoyed interacting with on Twitter there but trying to find them is a little more chaotic/time consuming. Mostly want to be on social media less though so I get this!
Oh that Extraordinary Machine cover gives me a particular ache. ❤️
RIGHT? I used to play it in my high school bedroom and sing along with alllllll the force of my adolescent angst.
Yes, to all of this! I loved old school Twitter and made genuine life long friends there and found most of my first paid writing jobs there. It was great for me, personally and professionally, and I don't want to quit there (as much as I hate Elon and what it has become). I like Twitter because it was the writer's medium on social media (images are fine but you didn't need them in the way you do for Instagram) and I found so many writer's I love there. I don't have the bandwidth or desire to Spill, BlueSky, Thread, Twitter, Mastadon, etc... but I also want to grow the audience for my Substack and I'm not totally sure how to do that without cross posting my work to other platforms.
I know - it's not ideal. I will say, I do think most newsletter growth comes from within the app and via word of mouth. I've never seen huge numbers of people come to me via me sharing on Insta or Twitter?
I guess that is true. My newsletter is less than a year old, so I would say the bulk of my first couple of hundreds of subscribers came from people who followed me on Twitter and Instagram, so perhaps I'm giving that more weight than it actually is in terms of growth.
(Also, ugh, why does it still feel so hard/gross to talk about wanting to grow my Substack? I think I have some lingering good girl coding that makes saying out loud that I want more people to read my stuff feel uncomfortable).
I HEAR YOU
I quit Twitter when I saw on the news that Elon Musk was buying it--that same exact day. I didn't have much of a presence on there, so it wasn't much of a loss for me. I rarely post on Instagram anymore (I made exceptions for when Momfluenced and Fat Talk arrived though), and usually only use Facebook to network shelter cats. I completely get how a writer needs what certain platforms offer, but I'm a nobody, and an old one at that--I just don't have the time or patience for one more thing that I'm just going to quit later! When I heard about Threads, my first response was "Nope," and still is.
YES! (and thank you so much for the momfluenced love!)
Xoxox