Monday, March 13, 2017

Pop-up? I’m Poppin’ Outta Here

Old man yells at (social media) cloud, Part 1. I like to yell.


It’s become reflexive with me now. It doesn’t matter how interested I was in the subject, if I’m just starting to read the post and a pop-up box obscures my view of the text, I swing the cursor to the upper right hand of the page and “X” out.

If that pop-up occurs during the middle, I close the tab. If it does so at the end, I’ll read no more on the site. Honestly, how can anyone believe that interrupting my reading is going to make me want to do anything they want me to do, let alone give them my e-mail address and sign up for their stupid newsletter?

For all I know people spend their entire mornings scrolling through newsletters in their emails. And here I am, thinking I’m with the times for hardly checking on it. (We all text and private/direct message now, right? Or has that changed?)

Granted, I’d be rich already if I understood the Internet better than I do, but I’m sure this whole “you MUST collect ALL of the e-mail addresses! you MUST send newsletters!” is of a piece of that stupid “you MUST have a Facebook page to promote your book.” Everyone feels compelled to do it thanks to Internet hucksters pretending to be wise online marketing gurus—worse, everyone knows this annoying make-work nonsense doesn’t work. Yet they feel compelled to do it anyway.

Not me. I don’t want your flippin’ e-mail. I don’t even write to people I care about. I’m a mean old thing. I announce new blog posts on Twitter, along with my more evergreen posts, so follow me there if you’re interested. 

No comments:

Post a Comment