The Saving Graces of Social Media

It’s all about perceptive when discussing the pros and cons of social networking. True, there are quirks about Twitter and Facebook and their internet compatriots. Used poorly, they can appear narcissistic or snarky or just plain cruel.

But this week, I read an excellent article in Salon by Julia Fierro, where she highlights a redeeming side to social media. Read it if you haven’t already (especially if you’re a doubter). These are only a few of my favorite quotes:

If you ask the people who know me in real life…they’ll call me friendly, outgoing, maybe even gregarious. A charming conversationalist. The kind of person who can be warm with friends and strangers alike. And I can be, but only in two- to three-hour bursts. After the time limit expires, so does my social-emotional tolerance.

. . .

I’m a closeted introvert. I crave daily social interaction, but I feel so much for, from and around people, that it quickly depletes me.

. . . 

But it quickly became clear that my particular situation (I work from home) and personality (obsessive introvert) made social media my blessing in disguise. It is socializing on my own terms. I feel genuinely close to my online friends, but I can slip into a conversation, and slip out. I can log on, and log off. And, in my busy midlife years, when I am “having it all” — balancing professional success, a writing life and family — these are the only relationships I have time for.

I am an introvert just the same; it takes me a long time to warm up to a crowd. Ask my own family. There are moments–even at a simple dinner–when I am more comfortable in front of the sink washing coffee cups than sitting around the table talking. And, it isn’t necessarily because I love doing dishes.

But Fierro brings up another reason that attests to why I love social media: the time factor. For me, it isn’t only how much or little time I have to visit with friends (online or in person), but the time I don’t have to read all the great essays and articles published by writers, about writers, on the craft of writing. I depend on my Twitter and Facebook friends to keep me updated and to connect me to links I have missed in rush of my daily routine.

Like this interview with Lorrie Moore (found via Longreads), which was my true saving grace yesterday. Moore says:

From the time I first started writing, the trick for me has always been to construct a life in which writing could occur. I have never been blocked, never lost faith (or never lost it for longer than necessary, shall we say) never not had ideas and scraps sitting around in notebooks or on Post-its adhered to the desk edge, but I have always been slow and have never had a protracted run of free time.

And later, when asked directly if she was saying she had no other choice but to be a writer, she responds:

Well, that’s all very romantic, and I can be as romantic as the next person. (I swear.) But the more crucial point is the moment you give yourself permission to do it, which is a decision that is both romantic and bloody-minded—it involves desire and foolish hope, but also a deep involvement with one’s art, some sort of useful self-confidence, and some kind of economic plan.

. . .

I wasn’t at all sure whether I would be able to survive as a writer for the rest of my life. But I decided to keep going for as long as I could and let someone else lock me up for incurable insanity.

Uncertainty (and insanity) about my journey as a writer invades my thinking daily. It’s through online finds like this one–through social media–that remind me 1) I am not alone and 2) it’s worth the fight.

What saved you this week?

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