Priorities and a Lesson in Professionalism

It’s been a long time since I’ve posted anything here, but I can explain. In fact, I can explain it in one word: facebook.

Facebook ate my time. Only because I handed all my “free” time to it on a silver platter, but it still ate every morsel I offered and left nothing for laundry, dishes, housecleaning, writing…

Greedy, greedy facebook.

But then, something happened. Something bad, which turned out to be something good. I shared a “photo” (which wasn’t actually a photograph, it was a statement that had been shared as a photo and facebook doesn’t really know the difference). It was a statement close to my heart as someone who works in the field of public education.

While I didn’t expect everyone to jump on board and give lauds and praise over the statement I’d shared, I wasn’t expecting quite the response I got. Someone took something out of context and began rubbing my face in it. It was so out of context, it took me quite some time to figure out what the hell they were talking about. True to the nature of most zealots, it didn’t matter that the item being pulled apart had nothing to do with the statement I shared, that which they found offensive needed to be trounced and stomped into oblivion, while the statement which meant something to me was ignored.

It was lovely, in a heart-crushing kind of way.

However, it showed me something important. I had taken my professional facebook account, my author account, and turned it personal. My original thought had been to share who I am with my readers so they could “get to know me.” After visiting the pages of a few other authors on facebook, I realized my error and I have since changed my tactics. I am now focusing more on writing and less on public education, puppies, kittens, space exploration, etc. I do miss acknowledging my friends funny posts, and I may do that a little more, but not much. If I see something I really like, I’ll send a pm to the poster and let them know privately. I’m reigning in my public profile, and keeping it as professional as I know how.

And I sure as hell won’t be sharing anything that might be misconstrued to the point of making me cry.

The other good thing about what happened is it has freed up quite a bit of time that I can use for the greater good, ie: laundry, dishes, housework, WRITING…