from distraction by distraction

“Distracted from distraction by distraction”
T.S. Eliot

One week from today, I will be writing from a dorm in New York City. On top of the stress of this move and leaving my sleepy little town and my steady little job and my friends and family, I have been forced to face one of my greatest foes: social media.

I pride myself on being a social media hermit, but part of my grad school pre-program homework is to “culture surf,” so I have undertaken to do just that. Over the last week, I have stepped into the overflow of publishing blogs and Pinterest and Facebook groups and ebooks and online magazines on top of my personal email and Facebook and phone calls and texting and Instagram and Pandora and Netflix.

This girl is ready to scream. In fact, you might want to cover your eyes because I’m about to visually throw a fit.

TWITTERFACEBOOKBLOGEBOOKPLATFORMPUBLISHINGNYUROOMMATESMOVINGOLDJOBNEWJOB-BOYFRIENDWRTIEREADEDITPUBLISHMONEYCREDITCARDSBESIGNIFICANTDOSOMETHING-MAKEADIFFERENCEBETHEBESTDONTFAILOVERWHELMEDOVERWHELMEDOVERWHELMED.

MY KINGDOM TO GET THE REST OF THE WORLD OUT OF MY FACE FOR FIVE MINUTES.

You can stop squinting now. I’m finished.

To say the least, the vast universe of social media is daunting. Sometimes it’s just downright annoying. As I “surf,” I find myself searching for something refreshing and real, but I have yet to find it. It all seems so shallow. The most infuriating branch is the home of the @ and # and the practically illegible, but apparently significant statements called “tweets.”

Twitter is mocking me.

Every time I work up the courage to open my twitter feed, that little blue bird reminds me of my social media ineptitude with the simple accusation: “You haven’t tweeted yet.”

Yes, twitter bird, you’re right. I, @NMKnippenberg, have yet to tweet.

But can you blame me?

Perhaps I’m a romantic, but I had hoped that when my brilliant thoughts are one day quoted in some equally romantic youngster’s graduation speech (because we all know you’re basically wisdom incarnate when you’re used at commencement) it would begin: “As the prolific N.M. Knippenberg once wrote…[INSERT BRILLIANT AND MOVING PEARL HERE].”

Somehow, “As @NMKnippenberg tweeted last night from her iPhone…[INSERT 140 CHARACTER VOWEL-LESS, CRAFT-LESS HALF-THOUGHT HERE]” just doesn’t have quite the same impact.

Despite my reservations, I am impressed with the branding of this corner of social media. Twitter’s trite and un-businesslike atmosphere was a bold and surprisingly successful choice. I can easily see how the clean little blue bird and the terms “tweet” and “twitter” would appeal to pink-nailed Abercrombie-wearing teens. I also understand why celebrities would take advantage of such an easy and seemingly personal connection with those pre-college prepsters. It is obviously an efficient mode of advertising and spreading awareness.

But you can’t tell me that hearing the words “Pope” and “tweeted” linked on the evening news–AS ACTUAL NEWS–doesn’t strike anachronistic discord.

The publishing program has made it clear that social media is vital to my success in publishing. I suppose to an extent they aren’t wrong. I’m sure it will be helpful to have my thumb on the pulse of my target audience. To see what’s “trending” and where public opinion lies will, of course, be useful, but I can’t help but think that an industry that surrenders its reigns to the whims of public taste has an exhausting and perhaps meaningless fight ahead.

I want to work in publishing because I want to help authors convey great and timeless thoughts to the people who need to hear them. I don’t want my writing, or the authors’ I someday publish, to be leashed to the fickle and fleeting interests of the general populace.

I understand that actually selling books is important. How else will I afford my materialistic habits? But if it was just about the money, I would have gone to law school, or I would have been a business major, or I would have gotten over my distaste for blood and become a plastic surgeon. But I didn’t. I need my work to have value and purpose beyond a dollar sign and entertainment.

Books should entertain and be relevant and well-marketed to get people to pick them up, but there has to be substance between the covers. Publishing teen vampire book after teen vampire book is not going to be enough for me.

So I guess what I’m saying, is that social media can be a useful tool to help market great work that might otherwise go undiscovered, but pleasing the world to turn a profit cannot be a publisher’s only aim.

At least not a publisher I work for.

The internet has made it easier than ever for artists to make a name for themselves, and that’s great. But for how long, and at what price? In a world that is so loud with media and trends and viral videos, I worry that the true original, the true genius, might get drowned out by the thoughtless twitter of a billion people saying the same things over and over and over.

So. There’s my rant for today. Guess I’ll go tweet about it.