Where do you interact with your favorite author?

Remember MySpace? "Tom" pioneered social media as we know it today. Then along came Facebook. Then Instagram. Now there are multiple places to catch up with your favorite authors. TikTok. YouTube.

I’ve long relied on Facebook, but I’m becoming disenfranchised. It pops up reels in my feed that are clearly AI generated, easily dismissed garbage. Even the recipes that show up are generated by bots. Are the recipes tried and true? Can I trust anything in my feed? I saw an "article" today that featured Ron Howard and Henry Winkler with "then and now" photos. Except the "then" photo wasn't Henry Winkler. Seriously? Do they think people won't notice? That wasn't the first time I'd seen "not the celebrity advertised" in a photo, a clear sign this article is click bait or spam or something equally horrifying. THIS is why AI/bots aren't the future. 

Still, old habits are hard to break. Where should I hang out more often? I don't do TikTok, sorry. I do have book trailers on YouTube. Instagram is pictures, right? How much interaction is there? I have one author friend who posts multiple reels a day as she goes through cancer treatments, updating people on her journey. She's very brave, but I wonder how much traction she actually gets. Still, I post my out and about pictures. BlueSky seems like a friendly place. Substack? I'm still trying to get a feel for that place, but it looks promising. Kristan Higgins convinced me it was a good place to meet readers. But is it?

So I'm asking you. Social media is rapidly changing - there's no question about that. Has it outlived its usefulness? I find I'm spending less time "engaging," largely because I find myself doom scrolling, or not finding any real people. Yes, I still keep tabs on friends and family, but they get buried in all the other miscellanea brought to you by Boris and Natasha (hypothetically speaking, of course).

Inquiring minds want to know. As I finish up this next book (cover reveal coming in my next newsletter!), I'm weighing the value of "live" posts on each of the platforms to see whose out there and what the value is. Where will I find you?