May 2023: Anti-Social
Stop feeding the algorithm.
Hey, folks. Before I jump into the monthly recap and musings, I need to announce that my calendar is currently open for design work. There’s a about a month-long gap before my next client is ready, and my house needs some electrical work done this summer (panel upgrade & wiring—not fun), so if you’re a publisher or an indie author with a book in the works, please get in touch. I’m offering discounts on my current rates. I need the work.
My full portfolio can be found here. And you can contact me either here on Substack or through my website.
Anyway. Hi, I’m Todd Keisling, and this is Messages from the Southland, my (mostly) monthly newsletter. Prior issues can be found here. Comments are turned on, so you’re welcome to drop me a line if you want. I like hearing from you.
The Summer of Dread is in full swing. Horror On Main was last week, and both Erica and I had a wonderful time. We got to see some friends we haven’t seen in several years, made some new friends, and generally enjoyed ourselves. It was a nice break from work, as we both were buried up to our necks with design commitments.
The conference was well-organized and both guests of honor and vendors were cared for. We’ll definitely be in attendance next year.
Some highlights:
The Delta 8 gummy that Bob Ford gave me the night before the con began.1
Having dinner with Lucky McKee and Marc Senter, chatting with Annabeth Gish when she came by my table, and saying hello to Henry Thomas.
The broken, bipolar escalator. Sometimes it was up, sometimes it was down.
The staff! So friendly and accommodating.
Watching Erica kill it with her table. This was her first con as a vendor, selling prints of her artwork and handmade jewelry, and she did so well. Better than I did, for sure. I’m proud of her.
And here are some smiling faces from the weekend:
My next stop on the Summer of Dread tour will be StokerCon in Pittsburgh. I’ll be in attendance from Thursday, June 15th through Sunday, the 18th. Here’s a snapshot of my schedule:
As you can see, I’ll be the first reading of the conference, so if you’d like to hear something from my new collection, make sure you’re there!
I’ll also have copies of Devil’s Creek and Scanlines on hand for the mass author signing that Friday. Of course, I’m also happy to sign any of my books that you happen to bring with you.
I’m excited for this one. It’s my first in-person StokerCon, and I can’t wait to see my friends again.
On the writing front, I’m slowly digging back into Revelation Road. Emphasis on slowly. I managed only about 2k words in May, but I’m hoping to pick up steam this month. The story is there, revving to go. It’s just waiting on me.
Last week, I received author copies of Never Wake: An Anthology of Dream Horror, edited by Kenneth W. Cain and Tim Meyer. It’s a beautiful book with an amazing roster of authors, and it also includes a new story of mine, “Oneirophobia.” Look for it this September.
And I might have finally acquired an ARC of Cold, Black & Infinite last weekend…
Otherwise, things are quiet, but I hope to have news regarding The Sundowner’s Dance soon. Maybe next month?
With all of that business out of the way, I want to talk about social media for a minute. I’ve made it no secret that I despise social media. Yes, it has its benefits—mainly, reaching readers like you, and connecting with a wide network of fellow writers and artists, but over the years the negatives have begun to outweigh the positives. Simply put, social media is poisoning us.
Here’s an example.
Last week, I tweeted about an interaction I’d had with someone at Horror On Main. They’d said something that I found insulting, and because I’m on the spectrum and have a hint of RSD2, what they’d said haunted me the whole weekend. So, after the con and after I’d gathered my wits, I tweeted about this interaction and blocked the person on the platforms I frequented. It was my way of exorcising that person’s hold on me so I could put it to rest in my head and move on.
Unfortunately, something weird happened. The tweet went pseudo-viral. It had over 12k views in the span of 24 hours, likes and comments from people I don’t follow (and who don’t follow me), and was bookmarked a number of times.
I’ve been using Twitter since 2009. I’ve tweeted thousands, maybe tens of thousands of times, and not once has anything I’ve said ever gone viral. Tweets about books, my work, my art, other people’s books and art, other positive things—nothing gained traction like this one negative tweet did.
So, I deleted it. I deleted it from Instagram and Facebook, too.
I still stand by what I said and that person is still blocked, but the experience of seeing that tweet go viral shook me a bit, and put the whole social media thing in perspective: The algorithm is skewed to favor strife. And we are feeding it.
The tweet was made visible to a greater group of people beyond my scope. They, in turn, began retweeting and sharing it—presumably for the drama it encapsulated. And then a few of them actually bookmarked it, saving it for later to…what? Bask in the negativity? Keep it as a receipt in case I fuck up somewhere down the road, so they can point to it and say “He was always like this!” or something equally gross?
It reminded me of the hyena-like behavior of kids I knew in school, who claimed to be my friends until I was the subject of ridicule, and then were so gleefully eager to chime in, point and laugh. How quickly that can turn.
I’m sure there are screenshots sitting on someone’s hard drive, waiting for the day I happen to put my foot in my mouth. The funny thing is, no one can beat me up quite like I can, so maybe they’re just fooling themselves.
In any case, the whole experience left me feeling cold with a sour taste in my mouth. Social media isn’t going anywhere, unfortunately, and people aren’t going to change. All I can control is how I interact with it—and them. There will always be drama—it’s happening right now, about copyright and genre titles and punching down, and I just can’t anymore. I’m tired of seeing it, hearing about it, talking about it.
I’d rather lift up my friends, talk about their accomplishments, talk about my own work, and interact with readers. Going forward, I’m going to make a concerted effort to do more of that, and far less of feeding the algorithm’s bottomless maw.
And on that note, folks, I think this newsletter will come to a close. I hope I see some of you at StokerCon in a couple of weeks—and beyond!
Until next time,
TK
I could write an entire newsletter just about that experience, but I won’t. It’s going to be one of those “you had to be there” kind of things, better left for chuckles among friends.
Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria.
Social media can be poison. I'm sorry, man.
Great message, Todd. Social media is a digital weapon that is often used so haphazardly it’s sickening. Those who live by the sword tend to die by the sword so that provides some solace. Those who capitalize on the negative will be consumed by it.
See you at StokerCon!