Social Networking; it’s everything but Social

Example of a scale-free network (courtesy of H.G. Katzgraber)

Because of technology, we’re a highly connected society, yet we’re the most uncommunicative one. When I first started blogging, it was a way for me to get in the habit of writing at least once a week. It was to share whatever’s on mind from life experiences and travels to poetry and book promotions, with people who are interested.  I also wanted to know what other people thought. As of today, I still feel this way. I want to connect with people who want to connect instead of seeing my follower count go up but they’re really not following. In a world saturated with information, news, gossip, YouTube videos, etc. I’d rather communicate more on a personal level than for the sake of popularity. It’s funny because I’ve never gave ‘being popular’ a thought. I guess it’s all about getting your name out there.

And then, as I continued to blog and I published a few books, I decided to join Twitter and Facebook. I have to admit, I don’t ‘get’ Twitter. I’ve never seen much discussion from most of my Twitter followers, even when I ask a question because everyone’s too busy asking their own questions and posting links. When I do venture over to Twitter, which isn’t often, all I see are people posting links with comments such as, “Read my review!” “Check out my blog.” “Huff Post and Amazon!” I’m sure some people think this is a way of communicating, but not me. I'm not saying that I don't retweet and promote mine and my friends stuff, but I don't think that's all Twitter should be about ... or maybe I just don’t get the whole Twitter concept.

But I do get the whole Facebook concept and I refuse to pay for promotion. The one nice thing I have to say about my Facebook page is that people DO talk—they’ll leave comments. I think it’s great to see people giving their input about a particular question or about someone’s success.

What it really comes down to is that for all the different ways we can socialize, we’re not very social. We want our names out there, 15 minutes of fame, but we don’t want to talk to anyone on the way. Don’t get me wrong, I applaud many of you for tackling the social networking sites and really promoting on them. It’s a job all in itself.

Social networking should also be about socializing and discussing our lives along with world events, politics, religion, etc. We should be more apt to discuss than argue because of the many outlets we’re given to express ourselves. Instead, we argue and/or avoid altogether crucial subjects for fear of people not liking us.

What are your thoughts about social networking? What do you like or dislike about it?

Networking and Unsocial,

Bea

P.S. One social networking site I love is Pinterest.

It’s all about the Weiner!

By now, we’ve all heard about Anthony Weiner and his admittance to sending out inappropriate pictures of himself on Twitter. Although I’m not in favor of the public stoning, along with other “so-called” journalistic stories shoved in my face, I’m worried where our country is going. I normally don’t like discussing politics on my blog, but I can’t ignore this kind of continued behavior.

The auto and financial industries slapped the American people with greed and power while we continue to accept narcissism and lying from our politicians. This country is in turmoil, people can’t get jobs (including myself), sell their homes, yet we allow people calling the shots on budgets and making life and death decisions to play hide and seek on our buck. Republican. Democrat. I don’t give a crap. What they are broadcasting to the world is that they have no regard for anyone else…that the American people mean nothing to them. America wants respect—well we better damn well demand it from our government. Anthony Weiner is not the first to show disregard for the people and this country and it's time we make ourselves heard.

Our government better start taking drastic measures when it comes to ANY activity not part of a government employee’s job description. ZERO TOLERANCE. American children are expected to uphold zero tolerance policies in schools, so why aren’t our politicians? How can we expect children to follow policy when our own government can’t? They do something outside of what WE pay them for—immediate dismissal.

We need to start at the top—in politics—and should immediately fire individuals doing anything outside of their job. I don’t care whether it’s in their personal time or not, they signed up to be a public figure—to represent ME—so there should be Zero Tolerance. When they resign or retire, then they can do whatever they want in their personal lives. As long as we allow this public behavior, and then public stoning, younger generations will never understand or follow a healthy path.

If you feel strongly about the behavior we’ve had to deal with from our politicians, then click White House and let our government know how disappointed you are in them. Promote Zero Tolerance.

Not Write on Time

I planned to query Penguin Books UK regarding my novel, but time slipped away. On Twitter, I found out Penguin Books UK was accepting queries directly from writers until the end of October. Publishing companies don’t normally accept queries directly from writers, so it was a great opportunity to try and get my revisions done and query. Unfortunately, I haven’t finished my revisions to send a completed manuscript, so I’ll have to pass on this opportunity.

Even though I won’t make the deadline, I’m still revising my novel for future querying. But first, I must figure out how to write a query letter. I never thought I’d get this far to query my manuscript. I’ll need a tagline and a short synopsis, which I will research the proper way to create a query letter. It will be good for me to work on, because people keep asking what my book is about. Below is a quick synopsis—it isn’t the best, but it’s a start for tweaking..

“When Sydney meets Arcane in a chat room one Chicago weekend, she doesn’t expect their relationship to progress at full speed to the point of mental and physical possession. In order to escape and heal, Sydney must change her identity, but Arcane bleeds into her new life—forcing her new identity to finally fight back.”

It’s time to get ready for the weekend. Before I go, I thought I'd share a few pictures I took yesterday during our walk. 

This is the tunnel of an old railroad station.

And some cows we met along the way.

Holly—there are few places in Germany where it grows and we happen to find some along the trail.

Have a safe and Happy Halloween! Trick or Treat!

NE thoughts 4 2Day?

As a writer, I cringe when I see words shortened—even on Twitter where there is a character limitation. I feel like it’s dumbing everyone down—EVEN WRITERS! I’ve had family laugh at my text messages, because I type out all the words. It’s very, very rare when I type B4 for before, or 2day for today, u for you. I’m on Twitter now and I find myself annoyed with these abbreviations, along with the change in spelling, like haz, teh. GAH! ‘Texting language’ seems to be a trend branching out into many areas of life.

On LinkedIn, I’ve read that ‘texting language’ is now seeping onto resumes. We keep coming up with, as I call ‘dumbing down laws’ to compensate for those unwilling to use common sense. It seems laziness is weaving itself around and taking hold of an old form of communication. When the subject is broached to others, I usually get a defensive response such as, “It’s no big deal”, or better yet, “That’s the way things are”. Is it really the way things are, or is it the way we want things to be?

I like the information I get on Twitter that I would otherwise miss, but sometimes I find myself  quickly logging off when I see too much ‘texting language’. Even though I understand the brevity of text messaging, I can’t help thinking about the destruction it does to the English language.

Any thoughts?

He, She or Bully?

It’s funny how we as humans judge things before actually testing or trying out. *points at the rest of you shaking your head saying, “I don’t do that.”* I am referring to myself right now. When I first joined Twitter, it was entirely for blog exposure, and had no desire to learn about snippets of people’s lives as I stated in an earlier post about Twitter.

I read things I probably would never hear about. Today, I read a disturbing article about a man, Kevin Morrissey - Today Show, who committed suicide supposedly due to relentless bullying by his boss. It isn’t a definite the boss drove him to his death, but an investigation is underway. Boss bullying happens more than most want to admit, and with the weak economy, bosses are taking advantage of the situation.

I posted this since bullying seems to become widespread branching out into all ages and intellect. We hear about teenagers bullying others to the point of suicide, mass school shootings by those tortured by bullies, and now grown adults bullying employees. Have we lost all respect for humanity? Are we instilling abuse in younger generations?

I feel it’s a serious issue to understand so we can treat. What are your thoughts about bullying? Do you think it’s worsening over the years?