Grumpy Hump Day – Why I Dislike #WW and #FF Tweets

Okay, I will not be popular on Twitter after this. Not that I was ever popular. But any popularity I did have will be zero. I’m fine with that, and here’s why.
Twice a week my email gets clogged with notices that I have been mentioned in somebody else’s tweet, or that a tweet I was mentioned in was ‘favorited’ by somebody.
Here’s what it looks like:
#WW @wannabewriter @buymybook @NELauzon @SuzieInkWell @IMSuicidal @slitMywrists @Idon’tknowyouanddon’thavetimetogettoknowyou.
I do appreciate the sentiment behind this, because sometimes the person who added my name to this long list is someone I actually know and have met, and it’s nice that I’m being thought of. But most of the time I don’t know any of these names. “But that’s the point”, you will say. “It’s about getting to know other writers and getting your name out there and creating buzz so people will buy your book, etc etc puke puke.”
Except reading a long list of names is about as exciting as watching paint dry. I used to do this when I first joined Twitter, but it seemed pointless so I stopped. Does anybody actually take the time to get to know these random strangers, i.e. visit their Twitter page, visit their website, comment on their posts, become FB friends? 
I don’t. 
I press the delete button and send these tweets straight to my SPAM folder, where they belong.
I’m not the only one who feels this way. Check out the Novel Publicity blog. 
My time is important to me, and anything that wastes my time makes me grind my teeth. I have found Twitter to be very impersonal and therefore useless. The only thing I use it for is to make the odd announcement regarding my WIPs or to post my blogs. Any time I make a random comment the only one who retweets it or comments back is my friend and critique partner, Selena Robins, because she has to. (Kidding LOL: she’s just very supportive and very plugged in to social media, which is why she has a great presence on the net and I don’t, because I’d rather have a root canal than retweet tweets.)
Is creativity too much to expect from these #WW tweeters? Something like this might actually make me follow somebody or want to connect with them or want to read their blog:
Hey @NELauzon I read your blog and I also hate #WW. Let’s commiserate. 
Then I would feel there’s a real person behind the tweet, somebody who has taken 2 seconds to offer an opinion and let me know that maybe we have a connection.
After 2 1/2 years of regular blogging I only have SEVEN people who comment regularly. I have things in common with these people other than writing, and we have mutually supported each other in the past.
I also have quite a few lurkers who read but rarely comment, and that’s okay, I love them too ;) Hey, some people are shy, and I understand that because I’m the same way.
My point is, it takes time and effort to build relationships on social media, especially when you are inherently prone to being a hermit and dislike hanging out with tons of people in real life, never mind in a virtual world. But if I know you are reading my blog and commenting, trust me, I will read YOUR blog and comment, too. 
So please stop adding me to the #WW and #FF SPAM TRAIN, where I’m a nobody you don’t know anything about. If you really want to get to know me, tweet me something personal. Not in a weird, stalking way. Humor is good.
Grumpiness is better. 
Filed under: Grumpy Blog, Writing Life Tagged: #FF, #WW, Novel Publicity, retweets, Selena Robins, social media, tweets, Twitter, twitter spam