The Undiscovered Country

Don't Follow Me

I started watching a Netflix series called "Black Mirrors." It's a "sci-fi anthology series [that] explores a twisted high-tech near-future where humanity's greatest innovations and darkest instincts collide."

The first episode is about a young woman whose social media rating is at a 4.2, but before she can really get what she wants, she needs to raise it to a 4.5. I won't give much of the details, but let's just say it all backfires on her.

It serves, I think, as a warning to us all. How often to we post something and eagerly await every single like and comment. Even here, we are given ratings on our writing.

In and of itself, it isn't a bad thing, especially here. Ratings help us to improve our writing. The problem comes when we take those same ratings and apply it to how we perceive ourselves as individuals. How much do we determine our self-worth based on how high (or low) our ratings go?

During the last writers conference I attended, I sat in on an agent panel, and one agent said, "If I am to look at two writers, and one has thousands of followers on Facebook or Twitter versus another writer who has only a few hundred, I will most likely sign the first writer."

From the agent's perspective, it's not a horrible thing. As writers, our success or failures in readership will always boil down to the numbers. It may seem unfair, but that is the very definition of fair. Numbers don't discriminate. They are what they are; how we feel about them is never part of the equation.

That said, I don't want to succeed that way, at least considering the numbers first before anything else. I follow people on Twitter and Facebook because I care about what they have to say. I want people to follow me for the same reason. In fact, I have no idea how many friends I have on Facebook. I only know how many I have on Twitter, because it shows me every time I login. If it didn't show me, I wouldn't even care to look.

Some authors have followed me on Twitter. As soon as I decide to follow them, I get a standard private message stating, "Thanks for the follow. Please see my books and/or other products I have for sale." Out of fifteen or twenty of those, guess how many books I've purchased? One. And only because the way that author asked it was so funny and unique, I had to check it out (I'm glad I did. The novella he advertised for was actually quite good). I know then that they're not interested in my posts. They're out to get a sale, to uptick their own numbers. As a potential reader, I feel more than a little used.

Writing and gaining readership aren't solely about the numbers for me. They never were, and I hope they never will be. As other - especially Christian - authors have said and stressed, writing should be my ministry. For me, it shouldn't matter if my words influence and comfort a mere 100 people instead of 100,000. Nor should any number of ratings or likes on social media determine how I view myself, or even in how others may view me ("Psh, she only got seven likes for that post. Must be crap. I ain't reading that!")

Now this last part may sound like a sales pitch in disguise, but it isn't. I don't want you to follow me -- unless you really care about my words. Also know that if I follow you, it's not to try to sell you something, or increase my numbers and/or ratings. I do so because I want to know what you have to say. It's as simple as that.