Fire Star Press: Twitter

Friday, January 1, 2021

The Positive Side of Social Media

Happy New Year!

As a writer, I'm expected to have a social media platform and, for what's it's worth, I do. However, my relationship with social media is love/hate at the best of times, just hate at the worst. *sigh* And, as all relationships do, the one I have with social media has changed over time.

Twitter friends were extremely helpful during the years I was coping with elder care and the eighteen months in which I was dealing with the deaths of my father, mother, and mother-in-law. Many of those friends are no longer on Twitter and I don't blame them. I spend little time on Twitter myself; it tends to be a very toxic place. My favorite social media platform has always been Facebook because there I could interact with people but sadly, that is no longer true. Facebook now actively hides the posts by pages such as mine in an effort to force us to pay to "boost" our posts. Honestly, if they'd let me pay a yearly or monthly fee just to ensure that the people who follow me actually see my posts, I'd probably do it. But pay just so a bunch of people that aren't interested in what I have to offer can see it? No thanks.

Me searching for my tribe

However, while I've been unsuccessful in finding my tribe as a writer, I have found one as just me - a woman who loves video games. As me, not Izzy, I'm a member of a Facebook group for people who love the Mass Effect series of video games. So many gamer groups are toxic environments but this one is not. Is it perfect? No, but for the most part any disputes are handled well and the admins step in on the ones that threaten to get out of hand. For most of us, these games have helped us through the toughest times of our lives; when one of us makes a post to that effect no one mocks us because they understand. This group has evolved to become so much more. We share birthdays, anniversaries, weddings and births. (One member recently celebrated her 70th birthday!) People come looking for - and finding - support when they've lost their job, been diagnosed with COVID, or are just struggling with life during a pandemic. It's great to be a part of a community that cheers each other on, picks each other up, and just generally illustrates the best of what social media can be. So, on those days when I detest everything about social media, I just have to remember this group and the positivity it brings.

What sort of relationship do you have with social media?

Join my brand new Facebook group here: www.facebook.com/groups/1268960476808241/

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Wednesday, November 1, 2017

Not a Grammar Nazi

We all know them, those people who live to correct the grammar mistakes of others - preferably on public forums such as Facebook and Twitter. They are known collectively as Grammar Nazis and have the ability to suck the joy out of almost anything by focusing on what was most likely a mistake.

I came across an awesome tweet one day which included a pop culture reference which just pushed the awesomeness to another level. The tweet (which of course I can't find again) had countless likes, retweets, and comments. I was shocked to find that most of the comments focused on the one grammatical error in the tweet instead of the amazing overall content. (If I remember correctly it was "whose" instead of "who's".) I just wanted to shake people and scream "You're missing the point!" It's no harder to use your 140 characters to give the originator of the tweet kudos for creativity than it is to point out a mistake that they are (now) well aware of. However, Twitter doesn't allow for editing of tweets so the originator's only option is to delete it or just deal with the negativity.

We have an "instant messaging" feature at work that we can use to contact other employees. One of my coworkers knows that I'm an author (most don't) and she told me one day that she is always nervous about messaging me because she's worried about making some sort of mistake. I (hopefully) assured her that I'm not one to nit pick which may seem to be an odd trait for a writer.

So, am I saying that good grammar isn't important? Not at all. When I send a book off to an editor, I'm going to make sure that it is as perfect as I can make it. I also know when I get that book back, the editor will have found simple grammatical mistakes that I overlooked. It's easy to miss our own mistakes, especially when we have been working on the same manuscript for any length of time. After a while, the brain sees what it expects to see instead of what is actually there. This is why editors are so important.

So, if my passion involves the use of words and grammar why am I not a grammar nazi? Simple:

1. Everybody makes mistakes - even those so fond of policing others.

2. Autocorrect is the great equalizer. Anyone who uses a smartphone or tablet is well acquainted with typing a message and hitting send only to realize that autocorrect reared its ugly head and made changes - sometimes rather embarrassing ones.

I fell victim to autocorrect this morning. I typed up a tweet, proofread it, sent it, and moved on with life. A couple of hours later I realized that in spite of proofreading there was a typo in the tweet. *sigh* How did I miss the error? It was an example of what I mentioned earlier - I saw what I expected to see instead of what was actually there.


There, their, they're. It's just a mistake, not the end of the world.

On another note, while I am not one to be offended by any and every thing, I actually am not fond of the use of the term "nazi" in this context. I feel that it somewhat demeans the atrocities that occurred during the Holocaust but that's a topic for another post.

So, are you a grammar nazi? Be honest. I won't tell. ;-)