(NOTE: I’m actually going on a fun little road trip Monday and Tuesday to see some friends and some of the beautiful fall colors so I won’t be responding to questions on this post or on Twitter until mid-week. I’m not even taking my computer with me on my trip. Thanks for the patience & grace. I’ve been traveling a lot recently and have had a bit of a family crisis thrown in the mix too…so I need a little break from it all!) :)
Five years is not a bad run.
I’ve been blogging on FlowerDust.net for about five years now.
And it’s time for me to stop.
In fact, it’s time for me to make several changes in regard to how I approach this ever-evolving world of social media.
Over the last six months, I’ve had three people significantly influence my decision to change directions as far as “who” I am online. And please note the quotation marks on “who,” as I truly believe there is only a certain level of intimacy one can share via pixels. There really is no “who” I am online.
There is just me. And this is what I’ve got to do.
Why share all this? Because you are important and you have supported me throughout the years. Also, I think there are other people out there that may want to take some steps and re-evaluate how they participate in social networking, and maybe this can help them process.
___________
THE INFLUENCERS:
Consistency to Your Design: One of these people has a very similar life to mine. A writer. A speaker. A person who spends maybe more time on planes and in hotels than I do. He wants to invest more time in his private life, in the relationships he has in flesh and blood. He wants to live like this more than he cares about his public perception. It’s not to say the people he interacts with online aren’t flesh and blood, or that they are any less real or important; there simply is a limit to how much you can share and with whom and time and space.
This person has followed through with his good intentions, carefully guarding how he spends his time. At times, it’s been difficult. He’s not neglecting opportunities to help others…he’s living true to his design (as one who gets energy from solitude – much like me) and that is allowing him to probably have a more pure influence in the world than juggling a public perception while trying to be holistically who he is.
—
Your “Identity”: Another one of these people is someone I’ve recently met. A musician. A talented singer and songwriter. Over gallons of hot tea and closing down Nashville’s Fido coffeehouse several times, he’s helped me dig into what identity is and isn’t. He’s helped me see why one of the reasons I get anxious or worried or feel guilty or angry is because the identities “Anne the author” or “Anne the blogger” or “Anne the speaker” have something opposing them.
There will always be opposing forces in life, but when I take them on as “Anne the _______” it will always cause more stress.
Why?
Because I am Anne. Simply Anne.
This doesn’t mean I don’t have talents or a career or relationships, but to allow anything related to ego or self-importance to influence the way I make decisions actually hurts me.
“Anne the Social Media Girl” has been trying to make everyone happy and it’s impossible. The guilt complex tells me I have to keep the boat afloat but the rest of my body tells me to stop it or I’m going to end up jumping off a cliff.
—
Courage: The third and final person that’s helped me arrive at this decision is someone who has simply spoken words that have given me courage.
“Just do what you need to do. You know what it is. Don’t be afraid. I need you to be courageous. The world needs you to be courageous. There are going to be so many people that may not understand or agree with you, but you can’t let that stop you from doing what you need to do.”
And so, I’m doing what I need to do.
___________
Since there have been relationships formed on this blog or on Twitter in a variety of ways, I thought it would be best to tell you what I’m changing and why. I hope you can respect it whether or not you agree with it and trust me when I say I know I’m doing what’s best for me, my faith, my family, my health, and my closest community.
**BLOGGING
GOING AWAY: I will no longer be blogging at FlowerDust.net. There are a lot of really good conversations on here, and it has some important topics that are indexed well in search engines, so I think it’s important to keep the information available. However, all the comment sections will be closed and essentially, this blog will remain up for archival purposes only.
I will keep the comments on this post open for a couple of weeks and will answer any questions that may need answering. But I am not going to defend my decision if you disagree with me. Again, I just ask that you respect it.
WHAT’S NEW: *I will continue writing online. I’ll be writing an essay once every Tuesday and a poem once every Thursday each week on my new site AnneJacksonWrites.com.
It’s simple.
It’s just writing.
No more giveaways.
No more promotions.
No more random tidbits of information.
I love to write.
I love to write essays and poetry.
I am not a blogger.
Blogging is a form of writing and many writers blog well and many bloggers write well. I am not one. Not anymore. I just want to improve my writing skills so I am going to focus on how I write best. It will be consistent, still interactive, and hopefully thoughtful and present.
RSS READERS: Fear not. No need to re-subscribe to anything. Technology is magical like that.
**TWITTER:
GOING AWAY: Twitter.com/FlowerDust
I’m declaring bankruptcy. At some point in time today (Monday, 11/15) I’m deleting the account.
WHAT’S NEW: Twitter.com/AnneJackson
Whew…I’m so glad I name squatted my own name back before Twitter became popular.
To answer some of the FAQ’s I’ve gotten already:
Q: Why not just change usernames and keep your followers?
A: Two main reasons: I doubt 12,300 people really follow me and I really don’t follow 4,300 people.
Q: Will you be following everyone who follows you?
A: No.
I will not be following many people. It has nothing to do with whether I like you or think your tweets are valuable or not. There are people I know in person that I see almost every day that I won’t follow.
Here’s the thing: *I* have allowed Twitter to become another distraction to what I feel I need to become – a better writer. I’m going to keep using it, but it’s going to be much more personal and less about my “platform.”
If people interact with me, I’ll interact, but it’s not wise for me to follow everyone. To have several thousand people be able to send you a direct message and assume you can reply is very overwhelming for me.
Some people handle it with grace. I can’t. I am an introvert – online and off – and being “on” all the time drains me of who I need to be and what I need to do.
I realize this is a “controversial” move on Twitter (the fact there are such things to me seems a little ridiculous, to be honest. It’s just Twitter…) and because I already have received some — let’s just say “passionate” – messages about not following everyone, please hear me: If I don’t follow you, don’t take it personally.
Simply, it’s just not healthy or smart for me to follow everyone.
Something I do that is a good middle ground is create lists. I can follow people on lists without opening the DM floodgates. So know that I will still engage with people, I will still catch up with people, it just won’t be through the means of “following” in typical Twitter fashion.
**OTHER THINGS:
My Facebook page will still exist and I will still interact on it at Facebook.com/FlowerDust. Facebook doesn’t allow name changes on Pages yet, but as soon as I can, I’ll try.
Privately, I’ve shut off all my Google Alerts for my name and my book and my websites. I’d love to keep up with all that, but again, I simply need to focus on a handful of things I truly care about. My reputation is not one of them. It will hopefully speak for itself if I consistently seek after a more pure, noble, true, lovely and admirable life. And by making these changes in my online world, those characteristics will flow more consistently out of everything I do.
___________
Is this a poor career choice? I don’t know. It’s debatable. The “experts” say every author needs a platform. Experts have their place, but they don’t run the world. I think I need to be a better writer before I have a platform.
The bottom line is this: I think faith and love and character can and will supersede any social media campaign anyone can dream up. It’s not about being famous or selling books or promoting myself.
I need to work on the character things first and foremost, and then out of that I trust my best writing is yet to come.
___________
THANK YOU.
No matter how long or how short you’ve been a part of FlowerDust.net, or any extension of, I say thanks. I hope we can continue our relationship even if it looks a little differently.
It’s been a great five years.
Be well,
Anne Jackson