That we can't be everywhere and do a good job about it.
This got me thinking about my Internet presence. I agree, I am not all over the place (and totally not as socially prolific as a lot of people I admire!) but even this is, as many writers can attest, a huge time-suck.
I started the year committing myself to writing at least 4 books. 3 of the 50K length variety, 1 of the longer variety (80K+). And these are not gonna get written if all I'm doing is hopping all over the place. As my health takes another look-over and forces me to be expressly where I want to be, I have to prioritise...
...and decide where I want to be. Namely, Facebook and this blog. Sadly, I'll have to let Twitter go.
I didn't come to this decision lightly, but things are pointing me in that direction, and I'll try to explain.
First of all, I'm not good at Twitter. It feels so much like talking to myself. Yes, there are @whoever replies, but that's another issue (scroll down).
Second, my location. Not many people in Mauritius are on Twitter (as opposed to Facebook), so the site doesn't get the same kind of bandwidth support here. Yeah, true - I'm not even sure if what I just said is possible (bandwidth-wise), but this does look to be the case.
Third, bandwidth/connection woes again. Every time I'm on Twitter, I time out. I'm either told I timed out, or I get that huge whale being lifted by little birds image (the one up here. Yeah, totally unnerving, innit?). Not conducive to tweeting, you'll agree.
Try to tweet - time out and you have to re-type the tweet... to maybe time out again.
Check your followers' page to see who is connecting with you... sorry, you timed out, try later.
Check your @replies - seems like you timed out, try again later.
Fourth - I'm a zero at navigating Twitter. Watching the sheer amount of Tweets that flow in gives me a headache. And how can you expect people to follow you when you're not following them? Tweet-pics, I know what they are, have no idea how to see them, use them, add them. I tried a few times to read the scroll, reply, check profiles. A few hours had gone by me...
Fifth - location again, and the time difference. A big feature of Twitter is the immediacy of the medium. I mean, look at the #AmericanIdol discussion that went on during this season's premiere. Sadly though, when most of the people I can interact with are Tweeting, I'm asleep. I'm 8-12 hours ahead of US time, so that makes my working day Americans' sleeping time. As a rule since the fiasco of my 2010 time/family/marriage management, evenings are pretty much off limits for 'work'. Yes, I do drop by my email and Facebook sometimes at 8 PM, but it's a cursory zip-through, which I can't do on Twitter.
Sixth - my phone balks at connecting to Twitter. Again, it seems that since Mauritians don't use Twitter, it doesn't get the kind of direct link I need to access it via my 3G service provider. The link, if accessed, takes ages to load, takes ages to let you log in, and (see a pattern here?) most probably it'll time me out.
Seventh - I hate being one of those who only self-promote on their Twitter feed. The only reason I can even do that is because I've linked NetworkedBlogs with my Twitter feed. If I try to go in and add my link, I'll (you guess it!) time out!
I really would love to be able to handle Twitter, but you gotta admit defeat when you're fighting a losing battle. I have to prioritise, I have to time-manage, I have to write, I have to have a life outside of the cyber world, I have to be a wife and a mother and basically a person who takes a minute a day to look after herself.
This means de-junking, de-cluttering, simplifying.
So from now on, peeps, I'll be here and on Facebook. Join me, won't you? :)
From Mauritius with love,
Zee
