K is for Keeping Up

Posted on April 13, 2015 by joey

The fact that I’ve already written this post and WordPress failed to save my draft is no help.

I have trouble keeping up with all sorts of things, social media being no exception.

I do best at Facebook, because my family and closest friends are there. I’m connected to fewer than 150 people which means I generally interact with the same 20 people all the time. I love those people. They’re my original Facebook friends, the original cast, you might say, before everyone and their brother was on the Facebook, wanting to friend you for who knows what reason.
Plus, Facebook has word games.
I love word games.

I don’t understand Google+ but I have a page there. That I almost never use. I’d tell you how many people are in my circles or how many people added me to their circles, but for the sake of argument, let’s say I understand the mathematics of actual circles better than I understand Google+ circles.

meanwhile-on-google-plus

I love Twitter, but I fall behind there.
At the beginning, I couldn’t imagine how anyone could expect to develop relationships with strangers through a series of 140-character spurts, but now, if I skip a few days from Twitter, I actually miss people I’ve never met, whose names I do not even know. And y’all, when I log in, I am so glad they’re still there!
I follow about 2500 and am followed by about 2800. It is impossible to read all the tweets of 2800 people. I have a list of about 170 people I like, and who I have a general sense of — I swing by now and again.  I have a list of 18 people I adore, whom I really should read daily.
The other 2600 people? I really don’t have a clue wtf they’re going on about, and I’m not sure they do, either.
On Twitter, I lol and cackle and chuckle and grin and snort and lmao and pmsl, and sometimes tears of laughter stream down my face.
I like to laugh.

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Instagram is a nice, easy, drama-free app, but I struggle with Photo a Day. Sometimes I open the topic of the day, I roll my eyes and say, “Fuck you ‘#4 Inspiration,’ I don’t even feel remotely inspired.” I worked at finding the right thing, but sometimes I couldn’t find the right thing, so I’d take a photo of somethin kinda lame just to have a photo of the day.
Same with tags. Honestly, I do not enjoy taking the #sds (stop, drop, & selfie) on the regular. My #sds pics? Joey generally wears the same ten shirts, (white, blue, pink, or black) wears the same three hairstyles, (messy up, messy down, or straightened) and pretty much goes to the same three places every day (living room, kitchen, and yard.) I don’t change enough to make a daily selfie even remotely intriguing. I enjoy the selfies of others, but I prefer posting pictures that narrate my life.
I like pictures of flora, fauna, and food.

instagram-is-down-just-describe-your-lunch-to-me
Which brings me to WordPress, where I follow 366.
Compared to the number of people who follow my blog, that’s really low. But you cannot tell me you read every single post of 100+ followers. I mean, you could tell me that, but I’d think you’re lying. Some people post multiple times a day, and some of those posts are so long! If I read all the blogs of those I follow, I’d be chained to WordPress!
It’s not a matter of “I’ll follow you and then you’ll follow me.” For one thing, anywhere there’s a follow option, that means that people follow solely to get follows. On WordPress, plenty of people read two or three posts, like them, make a few comments, follow you, and you never see them again.
I read people who don’t follow me, and who probably never read me. I find great new blogs regularly, which means I start using my time to read those blogs and spend less time reading some other blogs. I regularly follow and unfollow. That’s how it goes. It only seems right that people pick and choose.

I am a persnickety bitch.
I prolly won’t read your 2000-word post about the joys of pregnancy. I prolly won’t read your re-blog. I definitely won’t read anything particularly gory or erotic. I’m not especially interested in fiction unless it’s flash and I don’t give a fuck about your god.
It’s not personal.
I read what interests me.
You should, too.

Maybe you enjoy my nature posts, but you hate my liberal rantings. Maybe you love my rants, the more profanity the better, but if you hafta read one more boring post about a fat fucking squirrel, you will gouge your own eyes out. Who should I aim to please?
Uh, me, cause it’s my blog.

I am here to enjoy my life.

This post is a metaphor for relationships, occupations, and lifestyles.

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Life is short even if you live to 100.
There’s an abundance of choices.
Act accordingly.

About joey

Neurotic Bitch, Mother, Wife, Writer, Word Whore, Foodie and General Go-To-Girl
This entry was posted in Uncategorized and tagged , , . Bookmark the permalink.

46 Responses to K is for Keeping Up

  1. Norm 2.0 says:
    April 13, 2015 at 12:25 PM

    That just about sums it up for me too. Except for Instagram which I haven’t quite figured out yet. Also, you may be happy to know that they’ve unofficially decided to scrap Google+, I read recently that they’ll be spinning off the components that people actually use into their other services.

    Liked by 1 person

  2. edwinasepisodes says:
    April 13, 2015 at 12:25 PM

    I too have a job keeping up with things on Social media, but I try to keep my hand in. I am slowly getting more acquainted with ‘Twitter’ but it’s a slow process being a bit of a dunce at these things!

    Liked by 1 person

  3. coldhandboyack says:
    April 13, 2015 at 12:31 PM

    Great post. It’s something all veterans get to eventually. My Twitter feed is like a firehose. I cant even find the ones I actually want to read.

    I need to unfollow some blogs too. There are some I just never wind up reading. It may bite me in the rear as an author, but my time is kind of valuable too.

    Liked by 1 person

  4. Dan Antion says:
    April 13, 2015 at 12:45 PM

    You’re right, the connected world is too big to really pay attention to. If I follow your blog via email, it means I read every post. OK, I at least look at every post to see if I want to read it. If you’re in my Daily list on Twitter, I might see your tweets. FB is pretty much as you describe it. Instagram, really, I don’t have a clue. I have photos on Flickr and some on my blog. That’s enough. I have some on Piterest but mainly so I can use them on my blog.

    Liked by 1 person

  5. John Callaghan says:
    April 13, 2015 at 1:00 PM

    You basically have said everything that was inside my head about this. I do Facebook for the same reasons you do. I don’t understand Google + nor do I have time to understand it. I have about twenty or thirty Blogs I read regularly but I simply do not have the time nor for any more than that. I don’t really do any other sort of social media because I know I would never keep up and I don’t really have enough to say to justify another platform.
    Now, can I tell you a little about my personal relationship with Jesus?

    Liked by 2 people

  6. abundance in the boondocks says:
    April 13, 2015 at 1:29 PM

    I love the description of why you don’t stop, drop, and selfie. Sounds like how exciting my selfies would be, if I had an interest in taking them. You make “keeping up” look easy, though.

    Liked by 1 person

    • joeyfullystated says:
      April 13, 2015 at 2:23 PM

      Thanks 🙂
      Yeah, I’m so … dull. I think about the great posts on Instagram, and I’m like, “But I am not at Machu Picchu today, I am folding laundry…” LOL Like anyone wants to see my folded laundry!

      Like

  7. Carrie Rubin says:
    April 13, 2015 at 1:33 PM

    I think you’re singing everyone’s tune here. Like you, on Twitter I have a couple lists I regularly check in on and a few more I try to get to weekly if I can. The rest–yikes, I’m not so good at. Occasionally I’ll look at my actual timeline, but there’s so much noise there, I don’t last long.

    Liked by 1 person

  8. evelyneholingue says:
    April 13, 2015 at 2:10 PM

    You are certainly great at keeping up when I read of your social network life. Mine is far less busy. Keeping up with the A to Z challenge is no feast either. I enjoy your thinking and writing style and I cannot agree more with you on the fact that life is short and that we’ve got to make choices. Hard sometimes but necessary. See you tomorrow, Joey.

    Liked by 1 person

    • joeyfullystated says:
      April 13, 2015 at 2:25 PM

      We’re 13 days into it, and I have honestly ventured into no fewer than 200 participants’ blogs. I’ve done my share, I can’t help it more than half of them are awful, lol 🙂

      Like

  9. Anxious Mom says:
    April 13, 2015 at 2:28 PM

    Persnickety bitch…I’m dying here 😀 😀

    Liked by 1 person

  10. Sherry says:
    April 13, 2015 at 2:37 PM

    I get a lot from you Joey…like SoCS, which I have fun doing. But I’m definitely not finding that they like me….lol…it’s a more mommy/wifey/friendly place, and I think they find me OFFENSIVE, but I don’t care, it sparks creativity. As do you, all the time. 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

  11. markbialczak says:
    April 13, 2015 at 3:51 PM

    Well said, Joey. Time + Interest = BloggyVille friendship. That’s my formula. Some days there’s not enough of one or the other on the left half of the equation for me to successfully solve it, but that doesn’t mean I don’t take another crack at it when the next post pops up and I have a second to look at it.

    Liked by 1 person

  12. Veronica says:
    April 13, 2015 at 4:02 PM

    What is your Twitter handle? How come I never knew this?! Lol! Funny post as usual, Joey! 😄

    Like

  13. Josh Wrenn says:
    April 13, 2015 at 4:05 PM

    Well said. I am seriously wondering what some people follow my blog for, because they seem to hate everything I post. Too bad, “I’m gonna do the things I wanna do. I ain’t gotta thing to prove to you.”

    Liked by 1 person

  14. Mindy says:
    April 13, 2015 at 7:10 PM

    Google + is the Hufflepuff of social media. It’s there, it’s accepted and acknowledged, but it’s… just there. I don’t understand it at all.

    Liked by 1 person

  15. crumpledpapercranes says:
    April 13, 2015 at 7:15 PM

    Social media will continue to scare the hell out of me, more so than teenagers with X-acto knives on Halloween.

    Liked by 1 person

  16. Maria Tousignant Dunn says:
    April 13, 2015 at 9:57 PM

    I think keeping up with living joyfully is the best keeping up of all. Enjoyed visiting from A to Z. Maria@Delight Directed Living

    Like

  17. I.L. Wolf says:
    April 13, 2015 at 10:34 PM

    Sorry about the non-save of your draft. I always write my posts directly into WordPress, and maybe I shouldn’t. You recovered really well, though 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

  18. Sammy D. says:
    April 14, 2015 at 9:08 AM

    I love your honesty!! And your connective evergy😉 yawn

    Liked by 1 person

  19. Poui Season says:
    April 14, 2015 at 10:46 AM

    Brilliant – I love reading your blog (so cheeky and true) – you’re actually one of maybe ten blogs that I have saved in my tool bar. And most of the others are actually writer friends of mine that I know personally. AND IT IS EXHAUSTING! I find it so tough to maintain real relationships with friends, and make time to read all the wonderful literature in print that I so love, plus post to all these sites and maintain communications. It competes with real life, which I think is so much more important sometimes.

    Liked by 1 person

  20. LindaGHill says:
    April 14, 2015 at 9:09 PM

    Excellent advice. I don’t even have enough time to read all the blogs I really want to read, much less the ones I don’t. 😛 In fact lately I just really suck at social media.

    Liked by 1 person

  21. suzjones says:
    April 16, 2015 at 4:06 AM

    Loved this post…. as I deleted about 1300 emails waiting for me to read them. Still chasing that elusive time right now.
    Hope all is well in your world Joey.

    Liked by 1 person

  22. pathbreakingwriter says:
    April 18, 2015 at 2:10 AM

    Great post. Sorry for reading this late, but the reason for the delay is the same as you mentioned – Keeping Up. I feel the same amount of pressure subconsciously. I have to handle my personal and professional routine, look after the home, write and then read the blogs of all those who appreciated and liked my blog and commented. No matter how hard I try only stay connected with around 10 to 15 blogs (you’re one of the writers I read now).

    Liked by 1 person

  23. psychologistmimi says:
    April 18, 2015 at 12:13 PM

    love that instagram bit. 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

  24. April says:
    April 29, 2015 at 7:57 AM

    It’s good to be able to have internet and be able to catch up reading your blog.

    Liked by 1 person

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