I’ve resisted getting a Facebook account for years. I’ve been steadfast in my refusal. But now I think I may be about to give in. Take the plunge. Bite the bullet. Only clichés arise. I picture big families sprawled across the country or living in different parts of the world, grandparents watching videos of their kids’ kids, feeling connected. I get that. But I never wanted it for myself. I still don’t. I don’t want yet another thing I need to do online. I cringe when people talk about “unfriending” someone. I hate the whole tailored commercial aspect of it. The one time I watched a friend log into their Facebook account, the chaotic layout and incredibly busy and badly designed screen made my skin crawl. (This may have changed since then.) I hate the idea of keeping track of people I know like this, monitoring their lives but never talking to them, never even wanting to visit in “real life.” I don’t think I understand that part. And I always imagined having a blog would be enough of an online presence for me as a writer. But I attended a meeting in June for the local writer’s guild, and all three publishers on the panel insisted their authors be on both Facebook and Twitter. So, I’m pretty sure I’m going to do it. Any day now. Maybe even tomorrow. Jump into the deep end of the pool. Sink or swim. No pain, no gain. Unless someone can give me a reason not to succumb? Pretty please?
No Holds Barred
64 at 64—To trusting more (and more!)
No Holds Barred 
sure. You don’t have to do what you don’t want to do, just to write and publish. whew I said it. That said, I have a FB page that is highly regulated by me (by privacy and other preference settings.) You can tell it what to do, Riba. I like that part. : ) Hope you’ll let us know how it goes.
Thanks, Laurie. I don’t plan to participate much with Facebook, though I may join a few communities I have not been able to participate in (like the last time I did an online thing with the Traditional Chinese Medicine folks and wasn’t able to join people in the forums for questions and sharing). We shall see. My plan is to just set up a Facebook page where my blog posts will get sent automatically and see how it goes. I don’t want to really spend time there if I can help it. ;-)
And thanks for responding here! But I think it is actually something I need to do for when I publish my work—so I may as well get that part in place when now while I am not worrying about my book tour! Hee hee hee! I am only being silly here but also dreaming and being practical. It’s just what the publishing industry requires in this day and age. (One can, of course, hire someone to take care of this stuff! But whether or not you self-publish or go with a firm, this is part of the deal.)
Again, very sweet of you to tell me your thoughts. I am glad here you feel like you have a lot of control over your page, too. That sounds promising. :)
Hi Riba,
If it’s any comfort, I don’t use FB either. In fact, most of my friends don’t. But not because they’re tech-phobic… Many of them had accounts at one time but then closed them because… well, for many of the reasons you described.
I’m not “anti-FB” as some people are. But I do see how it seems shallow, if what you want/need is to feel as though someone is writing to YOU, and responding in a genuine way. I like wordpress because it provides a forum for interaction (even if it’s one-way sometimes) and I’m venturing into twitter.
But none of this addresses your original statement — that the publishing word expects it. I’ve heard that before, and I understand it as a tool for touching possible readers. Keep me posted on your thoughts about it.
I will indeed report down the road, Bart. I have yet to take the plunge, but I’ve made the decision to do so. (I want to have it in place so when I am being published I won’t have to be scrambling to set things up on top of everything else! Plus, who knows—maybe some terrific publisher or editor or agent will find my work because of it!)
I am already cringing over many aspects of joining, but at the same time I have been thinking of situations where I may be actually glad to have an account, so even before I begin it is an interesting journey. Ha ha ha ha ha. ;-)
And thank you! :)