MANDIRA PATTNAIK

Past two months, I wrote and received acceptances for six pieces after making a conscious decision: I spent less time on social media. Even though engaging through my platforms have emerged to become an indispensable part of my writing life. Why and how? Read on to find out.

As you may very well know, writing life is as much about writing and publishing as it is about promoting your publications. I have been on the social media carousel for 6 years. I know how it feels to be and not-to-be active on social media. I even closely followed how this works–say, there are 6 contributors in a particular issue. The social media intern at the magazine tweets to announce the publication of each piece at the same hour. BUT, not everything receives the same attention. It is, in fact, the opposite, with ‘views’ and ‘likes’ wildly varying, with the most ‘active’ writer receiving the largest share of traffic. Thus, it gets more reads, even though all 6 pieces are presumably equal!

You’ll perhaps remember this funny tweet that I referred to in my newsletter for this month. This is from a writer’s perspective, who is moderately active:

It is, in my experience, a most accurate representation, even though, to non-writers, it’d seem hilarious and untrue.

Like you, I have been curious how the Twitter (now X) algorithm works. I thought I’d ask Grok.

how does the twitter (x) algorithm work?

Grok’s response was indeed enlightening. It said that the timeline uses a mix of machine learning models to rank and recommend posts (tweets) in order to maximize user engagement by prioritizing content likely to spark interaction (likes, replies, retweets, etc.). It operates in three main stages: –

Candidate Sourcing: Pulls posts from multiple sources

In-Network: Posts from accounts you follow, weighted heavily based on your interactions.

AND

Out-of-Network: Posts from accounts you don’t follow, sourced via social graph connections (e.g., posts liked or retweeted by accounts you follow) and embeddings (content similarity based on user behavior).

A 48-layer deep neural network assigns a relevance score to each post based on predicted user interactions (e.g., likelihood of liking, replying, or retweeting). The top-scoring posts are shown. The algorithm:

• prioritizes posts based on user interactions, including Likes, retweets, replies, and time spent viewing a post or profile as well as “negative signals” such as muting, blocking, reporting, or clicking “Not Interested.” Posts with images, videos, or GIFs often receive a boost due to higher engagement rates.
• amplifies posts related to trending topics or hashtags, tailored to your interests and location.
• uses your interaction history (likes, follows, searches, etc.) to build a user profile and recommend content.
• aims to be neutral but can amplify polarizing content due to engagement-driven ranking.
• is dynamic and frequently updated.

Obviously, it is systematically and intentionally, “engagement-driven”. Hence, the vast majority of tweets in your timeline are (what has come to be known as) pure “engagement-farming”. These are posts that are infuriating/funny/AI-generated content/outrageous content/fake news. Expectedly, these receive the most attention and are actively “pushed-through”.

In a 2022 post, writer Erin Fulmer writes “Social media isn’t made to feed us; it feeds off of us. We think we’re its consumers and customers, but we’re actually the product, grist for the mill….Trying to game the algorithm yourself is downright exhausting, since you also have to out-manipulate your competitors, who might also be your reading audience and your community.” So that settles it: Social Media being off-putting is not a recent phenomena.

Where is, then, space for something as mundane as a written piece (different from a multimedia piece, which works differently) published in a literary magazine?

On August 01, 2024, I wrote a post “Why am I pulling out of social media?” elaborating my then disenchantment with social media. I referred to related posts by other writers in my search for an answer as to why what I found most enjoyable just a couple of years ago, had been so dissatisfying now. My Bending Genres CNF piece “Whichever Remnants of Us on a Perennial Ferris Wheel” and Columbia Journal CNF piece “Your Everyday Social Experiment”  about my social media experiences were direct results of this new strange new feeling of disassociation.

I wrote:

Some of this feeling certainly stems from a (perhaps false) self-assessment that I have “Been There, Done That”. I have done shows, podcasts and interviews which came to me (perhaps again–who knows?) because of social media presence back then. I have no means of verifying it. Some of it (verifiable) was through my author website here. I am still getting offers and interviews (though I am far less on social media now). So that theory (that I am disinterested because I’m less on social media) is somewhat dented.

I wanted to reevaluate where I stood now, a year later. To give you a bit of background, I hopped on X (formerly Twitter) exactly six years ago. Before that, I wasn’t Google-able or find-able on the internet. I did not have any social media account, and totally preferred it that way. I set up my Twitter account only because the editor of my first-ever publication (yes, that was exactly 6 years ago!) kept saying I needed some sort of platform. It made sense at that time, especially since I didn’t even have a website. She told me readers might want to know more about me, which was a bit surprising but also kind of cool to think about. So, there I was on Twitter. I created my Instagram account when my book was about to drop, and it seemed like a good idea since a bunch of fellow writers said it’d help promote my book by giving me another spot to share. I totally get that publishers—especially the small ones I’ve worked with—need all the buzz they can get to sell books, so I was on board with helping out if it meant reaching more people. And that’s how I ended up on TwitterX and Instagram. Once upon a time, decades ago, I was on Facebook, but quickly vanished from it because somehow it made me depressive with all the showing and bragging. Twitter (as it was back then) was such a great place to be. I could interact with readers and writers from across the globe. It felt like a curtain had been removed and I was there, right under the spotlight, alongside hundreds of like-minded people. I truly felt hugely grateful to learn and also share my thoughts with such a wonderfully creative and supportive writing community.

So what did I discover one year after? Of course what I feared was indeed true. Reading recently published work and engaging in a healthy literary discourse–both are on the decline. No one reads anymore for the sheer pleasure of it.

As Grok’s response revalidates. The X algorithm is indeed working for itself and is no longer for the community, which in my case, was my extremely supportive global writing community.

What is the point then?

For writers, they can’t do without writing, it is a habit.

For litmags: well! Many have expressed disappointment over low social media engagement, particularly when a new issue releases. It deserves much more–there’s huge work behind an issue from curation to design to editing. I’m on a few mastheads and know this for a fact. It is sad that an issue release hardly gets the attention that it deserves. Many magazines have quit entirely, or maintain only a wafer-thin presence.

what changed For Me?

Now, because I had been suspecting this for some time now, I’ve been logging on and off social media for days and weeks at a time. This plan is working for some months now. Earlier I used to pride in posting at least one tweet a day, and I kept it strictly about my writing life, because that is why I was there in the first place. My latest strategy is to dictate when to post, instead of being on an unending loop where engaging with the algorithm (and fighting it) seemed to be compulsory.

I admit I’ve been swayed on occasions. The way social media beckons you, almost like a sinful addiction, that it initially becomes harder to resist. But trust me, as you’ll discover too, once you’ve been off it for as little as three days, you begin to feel better and the urge is no longer that strong. So that is how I manage it–hopping on and off as I feel necessary, rather than being pressed to check my notifications. With time, the addiction becomes weaker and weaker, and I have had more time to reflect on how I want to structure my stories or what I want to write next. It has been a calming experience, for sure.

The main question

Social media does not nourish me–that is a foregone conclusion. It does the opposite. It drains me, makes me irritated and makes me depressed. Even reading tweets by some accounts, although, they are about writing life, generate negative feelings. For example, some tweets seem to originate and play along like members of an exclusive club chatting among themselves–you pat me, I pat you back, which might not be apparent to those posting them, but it is to me, unfortunately!

Thus, it also affects mental peace, and as others writers frequently complain, might lead to sleep disorders. An article published by researchers from the University of Pittsburgh suggests a link between social media activity and sleep disturbances – and concluded blue light had a part to play. How often logged on, rather than time spent on social media sites, was a higher predictor of disturbed sleep, suggesting “an obsessive checking”, the researchers said. As you may already know, another research found that scrolling can inhibit the body’s production of the hormone melatonin (sleep hormone) and blue light emitted by smartphones, is the worst.

I’m therefore looking at avenues that’ll inspire me. Going forward, that is how I look to engage my time which I invested in social media earlier. I am not searching especially for things to do that’ll feed my writing life per se, but anything that makes me more relaxed and positive. Taking walks for example, or watching movies. One thing leads to another, and you never know what experience triggers a memory, or unlocks a recess of your mind, that eventually leads to writing!

what matters…

is that I am feeling better as a writer, editor, creator, and human. My purely creative time now exceeds the time and emotional cost of engagement on my social media platforms.

Goes without saying but I am far from abandoning social media altogether. I’ve somehow managed to collect lifelong friends on my platforms over the years. They are my support system and I truly treasure having met this community. As a writer from back-of-beyond, I almost didn’t know people like me existed on the planet, until I found this community. Their pains, worries and happiness at small things was, and remains, so relatable. I have finally known that being quiet, sensitive, introverted, empathetic, honest and hardworking, are not character flaws, but strengths–even if the world will make you believe otherwise!

I’ve peeked into people’s lives and cultures in places I can’t even find on a map. Social media has thrown a buffet of new ideas at me, enriching my understanding of the world.

I now log on for a limited time as and when I prefer. I read work by others that I’d surely miss if I never logged on. I also look for submission calls, literary news and life updates from friends.

I am in no way shutting social media off, just curtailing it to filter out the bad. It is a conscious effort towards using the limited available time to create and less time consuming some mindless utter filth—or being consumed as a data source.

As a HSP person I am now more mindful of my emotional state when I’m on these sites and reminding myself to close it out when I start to feel upset or anxious. I understand that I need it more than it needs me, because I am concerned about my work and my publishers (who trusted my work and offered me their limited publishing space). Every publication needs all the promotion they can get. To that extent, I am ready and willing to play along.

I am also fortunate that I am no longer seeking outside validation the way I used to. Indeed, praise or criticism from people I do not know much of, no longer concern or govern me as much as it used to.

With these tweaks, I am hoping I’ve been able to reclaim by writing life. There’re no two ways about it–writing is not like other desk jobs, where you sit on a desk and start delivering. Creating takes a lot of factors to align perfectly, so it is not to be compromised for the sake of publicity.

Tongue in cheek, but can I add something? I am wondering that maybe, just maybe, being elusive (and not upfront hogging everyone’s timeline) adds to the charm–that little enigma about the person behind the piece? What do you think? Let me know in the comments.

Thanks for reading and see you soon with August’s newsletter!