I’m confused…is it just me?

I realized I haven’t written anything in ages and ages but there was just this little something which is totally confusing to me and I felt I needed to write about it. Sometimes I feel like I am obviously totally missing something.

On Twitter I see these tweets that promise if you “click here” you’re guaranteed your followers will significantly go up. Is it just me? But…..who cares? Am I so insecure that I don’t feel validated unless a zillion people follow me? I don’t know 3/4 of the people who follow me now…I need more??

Then there are those Facebook posts….I see them from a bunch of different people that go something like this: “wondering how many people read my posts. Like and repost this to your timeline…I bet most of you won’t”…or some such thing. This totally confuses me. To me they look like old fashioned chain letters and I have always hated chain letters. I pretty much don’t do it just on principle even if they come from a person who I know and like.

Something else… I see this a lot in Fan Fiction. An author will bemoan the fact that they are not getting what they consider the appropriate number of likes, follows and/or comments on their stories. I was reading one awhile back where the author said at the end of a chapter there was “much more to come” then at the beginning of the very next said “comments are way down so I’m going to end it here”. There is this other story that I would actually give up on because it is sooooooo ungodly LONG but I don’t because I’ve invested so much time in it I want to see how it ends. BUT, she also comments on her last chapter that she didn’t feel the number of comments was good enough and she was going to have to re-evaluate her story going forward. Then she hasn’t updated the story in about 3 months.

I don’t understand the FB posts that want me to like and re-post as if I don’t, then I’m not a good enough friend to the original poster. I don’t understand why I need 10 million twitter followers as if I’m insufficient as a Tweeter-er if I don’t. And I completely don’t understand these authors who basically badger their readers ….. LIKE ME….PRAISE ME….AGAIN AND AGAIN AND AGAIN…or screw you….I won’t write/post the next chapter.

That’s the one that I don’t get the most. Do people write because they want to write…because they have a story to tell…because there is something inside of them bursting to get out? So if they expect 100 people to comment and only 20 do, does that make the story less worth telling? The writer who said “much more to come”…what? Was there more or was there only more if we salivated all over what we already read?

I admit, I read a lot of Fan Fiction and I very rarely comment on a story. I don’t know why, I just don’t. I mean, when I read a real book, there is nowhere to write a comment on it, let alone on every individual chapter. And you can’t say that the number of books sold proves the books popularity because many people buy books, doesn’t mean they like all the books they buy. So why do some Fan Fiction writers feel , or honestly demand, recognition and adoration or else. I’m writing this because I wanted to get it out of my head. If people read it, that’s great…if they don’t…well, it’s out of my head!

Look, I understand the need to feel that we are admired in some way.  I suppose that’s what drives people to try to get as many Twitter followers as they can and to see how many people read their Facebook pages.  I understand the need to feel that people appreciate you, your friendship, your talent, etc. But to basically demand it just seems wrong to me. I’m sure it’s just me but…like I said….confused!!