By Javacia Harris Bowser, See Jane Write Founding Editor
Photo Credit: Bryna LaShaye
Dear Social Media,
The last time I wrote you a letter it was just after our trial separation. We were apart for only three weeks, but I spent most of those 21 days feeling like I couldn’t live without you.
I depended on you for news and weather updates and you helped me keep in touch with friends. You made everything better. In that letter I wrote about how you could, thanks to Foursquare, turn an ordinary trip to the grocery store or pharmacy into an exciting race to be crowned mayor of my favorite local establishments. And when I was too tired to write or read and needed a break I could browse beautiful photographs on Pinterest and relax my mind a bit.
But now things have changed. Now, the thrill is gone. We’re like an unhappy married couple, a husband and wife who treat each other more like business partners than lovers.
Our relationship has become all work and no play – just tweets and Facebook posts about articles I’ve written or read, See Jane Write Birmingham workshops I’m planning, and blogging conferences I’ve attended. And these things are important; they should be shared just as, in marriage, bills must be paid and dirty dishes must be washed. But I want more.
I want my life with you, social media, to be fun again.
And isn’t that what the people watching us, the people rooting for us, want too? My Twitter followers and Facebook fans want to see my perky personality, not just my professional progress. Right?
I’ve been told over and over at all those conferences I tweet about that when it comes to our relationship there should be a focus on quality, not quantity. I know that having thousands of virtual followers and fans means nothing if those people aren’t actual followers and fans – if they aren’t actively reading and sharing my writing and attending my workshops. And as I think about the folks who I know are truly in my corner, I realize I didn’t win them over by always talking shop. I showed them I cared about them and I showed them I knew how to have a good time.
My online persona and my relationship you need to be just as well-rounded.
So this month as we focus on social media at See Jane Write Magazine, I am hoping we can get things back to the way they used to be.
I miss you. I miss us.
Love,
Javacia