On Saturday June 15th, I launched Revelation Stones at Dartmouth Book Exchange. There were many events and activities going on in Cole Harbour that day, so traffic was intense. While many places were busy, the book store wasn’t. However, that didn’t stop the book launch from being a success, particularly since I went into it with no expectations.
I met several new readers and saw several familiar faces, who stopped in specifically to say hello and buy my book. Thank you to everyone who came.
Snapd Dartmouth, a publication for the Cole Harbour, Dartmouth and Halifax area, dropped in, took a few photos and a short video. They have amazing technology in which you can hold your phone over their Snapd AR icon in the printed newspaper and download the linked video. So if you have a copy of the July issue, check out the article on the book launch. The printed article is also on their website: https://dartmouth.snapd.com.
I joined Twitter in January 2016. Anyone who follows me knows I don’t post controversial tweets. It’s about books, music, movies, my truck, mud, hiking, camping, history, writing and books. As time passed, I not only avoided posting on other topics, I avoided reading about them, too. Life is too long to fill my time with negative, irrelevant information; it twists the brain. It’s better to ignore the junk and focus on the good stuff.
I also don’t engage in sneaky, questionable behaviour, such as following hundreds of others and unfollowing when they follow back. I follow a few, share a few posts, comment here and there and go on with my day.
However, Twitter locked me out of my account on June 21st after I tweeted about the first day of summer. After three messages asking them to rethink their decision and unlock my account, they still ignored me.
Then, on July 17th, I sent a final message stating that in my exile I had become familiar with and enjoyed Instagram more than Twitter and that I probably wouldn’t be back. Within five minutes, I received a message stating my account was unlocked.
I am now back on Twitter. But it’s not the same. Instagram is a happier place. While I will still occasionally post to Twitter to promote my books, I prefer the peace of pictures and less chatter of Instagram. My account is for my pen name Diane Lynn McGyver.
What about you? Do you have a Twitter and an Instagram account? Which do you prefer?
Diana Tibert 
I hope your book launch went well, Diane. I don’t get Twitter. i hear lots of stories like yours. It used to be anyone who liked Trump got blocked, then it became who knows what–always blaming their algorithm. I like Instagram too (I follow you now) but it does require a little extra work to set up an image that works. I’ve got that down now!
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Thanks, Jacqui. It did go well. It was a great experience where I met many wonderful readers.
Maybe that’s why I”m harassed by Twitter: I don’t complain about Trump, and I’ve unfollowed and blocked accounts that go on rants about him. I avoid politics on Twitter. It’s not the place.
Instagram is the friendly place; less noise. While I love sharing tweets, I also like not sharing Instagram posts. Weird.
Thanks for visiting.
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I know what you mean (about an apolitical Twitter stream). I spent weeks blocking anything political on mine. It took about an hour a day! But I want my stream to be about writing, not politics. Or hate. Sigh.
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Wow. That’s a lot of time spent on cleaning house of political stuff. I try to ignore it, but I think it might be impossible to avoid next year with the election. I might do what you’ve done: spent time blocking. My philosophy is: if I spend more than 5 minutes a day thinking about politics, I’m wasting my time. Government should be seen and not heard.
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I do agree. I might even say, “not seen and not heard”. Truth, cleaning the streams doesn’t take that long anymore. The early investment paid off nicely. It distresses me immensely seeing all the hate and insults–in my stream! I don’t mind conversation. It’s when it devolves to the kindergarten playground approach. Sigh. Thanks for letting me rant a bit.
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The hate and other negative tweets is why I don’t spend too much time ‘surfing’ Twitter. I look for folks a I know, ones who are there for the subjects I’m interested in (books, writing, music, travelling, history) and ignore much of the rest. I guess we could call it Twittergarten. Lol.
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Ah social media, the ‘nuclear threat’ of the 21st century. Very seldom am I even tempted to engage with anything more than blogs and YouTube. And the more I read of how corrosive it is that temptation fades away completely.
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Lol. Perhaps that will be how this century will be remembered. I prefer blogs, too, and I’ve learned a lot from YouTube videos. YouTube also has every song I can remember the title to, so I can listen on demand to songs I haven’t heard in years. I love it. Thanks for visiting.
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I love YouTube for that very fact.You want to know how to fix some obscure piece of tech, or build a pyramid – there’s a video out there somewhere. 😀
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I’m with you. I learned how to give muscle injections to goats, how to make cake logs and dozens of other things, including formatting a book. I agree: got a problem? There’s a video for that.
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Congrats on your latest release Di. And gawd do I hate social media, and I’m everywhere. Every site has their nightmares and I’ve heard many groans about blocked, booted, jailed, whatever, on Twitter. They have been changing their system on almost a daily basis, The orange guy across our border has changed Twitter for what it used to be. I hate it, but I’m there. I hate FB more but I’m there. I don’t remember the last time I had any time to visit Instagram. 🙂 btw wp message tells me it can’t post my comment. I give up.
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Thanks, Debby. A few years ago, I decided to narrow my focus when it came to social media. I can’t do many things well, but I can do a few things really well. I tried Pintrest and lost interest. I deleted a few Facebook pages and now have only one, which I share various things on but seldom make a post for myself. It’s just there, and I spend about 10 minutes a month on it.
When I got locked out of my account on Twitter, I heard from several others who had the same thing happen. Twitter also deleted all our Followers and Followings, but ‘restored’ them after the account became unlocked. I had about 2,000 followers when I got locked out and lost about 200 during the lock-out. I don’t know if my followers number dropped because I never look at it.
Come the fall, my focus will once again be on writing, and I’ll be on social media only when I have a moment. After ten years, I’m losing interest in them. And as you say, they’re constantly changing.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts even if WP is making trouble for you.
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FYI Di, Twitter eliminated 100s and 1000s of followers 2 or 3 times this past year. Many writers, like myself wondered what happened, but it apparently had to do with trolls who were booted of Twitter discovered in cleanup exercises by Twitter because of political trolls. It was like a trolling cleanse. 🙂
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A trolling cleanse. That sounds incredibly liberating. Thanks for the information, Debby.
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Lol. 🙂
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Thanks for sharing your thoughts, tidalscribe. I don’t follow ‘selfie posters’ either. I like a mixture of outdoor photos, activity photos and quotes.
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Yay for the book launch! And yes, Twitter can be super toxic. It stresses me out to try using it!
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H. R. R. Gorman, I was getting that feeling from Twitter, but it wasn’t until I was away from it for almost a month and returned that I saw it clearly. I know it’s possible to train our news feed there, but it’s going to take some work. Thanks.
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Congratulations on a successful book launch. Your display looks great! I am on Twitter and Instagram. I always appreciated your retweets. I enjoy Instagram but don’t spend too much time on it. Social media can consume you if you’re not careful. xo
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Thanks, Darlene. The banner from Vista is eye-catching. They do a great job. I agree about social media; I do only a few and limit my time on them. I could spend 8 hours a day on them, but then I’d get no writing done.
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I can’t really get to grips with Twitter and prefer Instagram and Facebook. I don’t want to follow people on Instagram who post endless pictures of themselves, but I do enjoy seeing beautiful places around the world and taking interesting pictures to post.
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