I didn’t mean to write a clickbait title, but I’d be remiss if I didn’t elaborate. For the past few years I have been trying to build a social media audience. It started with YouTube in 2010, after I had to rant about how bad The Last Airbender was. My attempts to get views, clicks and fame continued with Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
I have since quit Instagram, for reasons I detailed here. For a short summary, it became a counterproductive distraction: I would log on to post something and then spend another half hour scrolling through comic book art, cat videos and instamodels (maybe not in that order). I can’t blame the platform, it was my own lack of willpower and discipline. I didn’t just quit because of the time wasted, I quit because I realized the likes and follows I got on Instagram weren’t converting to more views for my YouTube videos or more visits to my site. Instagram was not supposed to be an end in itself. Neither was YouTube.
What I was hoping to do with these platforms was create a brand for myself, that I could ultimately use to get published and actually see something tangible come out of the years I’ve spent writing five books. Maybe I don’t market myself well, maybe I mistime posts, maybe my YouTube videos are too dull etc. Who knows. Point being, YouTube has become just as bad as Instagram in terms of time wasted. I post a video a few times a month and generally get a handful of views. The odd time I get more than 200 it is because the video is on a popular but controversial topic (like the lesbian kiss in Last of Us 2) and then I get swarmed with dislikes and rude comments. The comments typically make it clear that people did not actually watch the video and just wanted another venue to vent about political correctness and a “liberal agenda.”
Aside from very few views I have also been spending too much time on YouTube. I will go on YouTube with the intention of checking views or comments on my videos, and then spend half an hour watching clips from movies, trailers or trailer reactions. Trailer reactions have become my kryptonite. I like seeing how films and TV shows make people react e.g. first impressions, guesses about the plot, fan theories. Of course, I also just love watching the raw excitement that films and TV can generate. It’s escapism at its finest. Watching a trailer usually leads to a black hole of trailer reactions, which just wastes more time. I finally practiced some more self-awareness and realized that if I checked out the new Infinity War trailer, I would likely spend another 20 minutes checking out other people’s reactions. The time I spend taking in this media to make a YouTube video, or write about it, is not worth the trade off (a handful of views).
For that reason, I will no longer review or give my thoughts on trailers.
As a side note, Hazard is now fully edited and the publishing journey continues.