This year I made the decision to give up social media during Lent.
It was honestly something I was looking forward to doing. I started my Instagram account in 2021 specifically for the purposes of book marketing and connecting with fellow authors. Since I landed a book contract for my debut novel Wingless back in 2022, I’ve felt tied to the social media world in a forcible way. After all, it’s the most readily available marketing tool authors seem to have. And with book launches in both 2024 and 2025, going on hiatus from socials just didn’t seem feasible.
So this year was my chance. And boy was it eye opening!
If you’re one of my followers over on Instagram you likely saw my hiatus post (if the algorithm decided to put it in your feed, anyway). And you may have also noticed that I never did return!
Despite Easter being nearly a month past, I’m still largely on hiatus from socials and I haven’t yet decided when I’ll be returning. Part of this is due to my ongoing busyness adjusting to farm life, and part of it is the fact that I don’t have any books launching this year to promote.
But a larger reason is what I experienced after three weeks away from socials.
I started reading books again.
It’s been probably over a decade since I had a habit of regularly sitting down to read physical fiction books. Non-fiction is different–I’ve kept up a bit with that. But largely my only source of fiction books has come from listening to audiobooks while I’m doing something else–driving, chores, art, etc. And even that has dwindled to a barest trickle since my daughter was born in 2024.
But suddenly after three weeks away from socials, I started getting the itch to read. And I’ve already finished nearly three books since Easter–one audibook, and two kindle books. It’s wild! I always said I simply didn’t have time to read anymore. I used to love it, but somewhere along the way my will to do it just dried up. And now I’m realizing it had nothing to do with busyness at all.
The culprit was social media.
The drying up of my interest in reading parallels when social media entered my life in a bigger way in my late teens. I had no idea it was hijacking my dopamine to such an extent that it was preventing me from enjoying reading. I thought that was something only people with ADHD (like a close friend of mine) had to deal with. Apparently not!
So now I find myself in a quandary. Social media has made up a large portion of my marketing in the past. I don’t honestly know how effective it’s actually been, though. Sure it’s been a way to follow and connect with fellow authors…. but is it really worth giving up reading for? I seriously don’t think so. Reading is such a key part of being a writer. And now that I’ve got that back, I don’t want to give it up again.
So while I haven’t fully decided what the future holds for my social media accounts, for now my hiatus will be continuing. Maybe this will be push for me to more seriously explore other ways of marketing prior to my next book launch.
If you have any thoughts or suggestions on this, I’d love to hear them! In the meantime, stay tuned for my next email newsletter if you want to keep in touch.