Going back to emails

Hello! tldr: I don't check social media comments or direct messages anymore. If you want to chat, drop me an email at hello@alfredlua.com.

(If you just want to spam me with pitches, please don't.)

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ICYMI, I have quit social media. To be more precise, I have stopped scrolling social media and checking comments and messages. I still distribute my writing on the platforms via a script and Buffer (but I'll likely stop when my mailing list crosses 10,000 subscribers.)

I stopped because I noticed it harmed me more than helped. Recently, I posted about three types of reading. I got this comment, "It doesn’t sound like you’re a fan of intellectual curiosity." even though the first line was: "The first is for fun. We read whatever we want, whenever we want, for nothing more than leisure, curiosity, and exploration." It was probably a throwaway comment, from an anonymous account with no profile photo, no less. But it annoyed me for days. I decided not to subject myself to such hostility any more.

I get many nice comments (thank you!) but a negative comment negates all of them. A few years back, in a LinkedIn post, I thanked my wife for supporting my decision to quit my job and cofound a startup. My posts usually didn't get many views. But that post went viral, with over a million views. Hundreds of people left kind words, and my wife was amused and happy about it. But a stranger said that I was using my wife for LinkedIn clout and added a satirical version of my appreciation note. Wow. That single unkind comment ruined everything.

I'm going back to emails, instead. It's actually much nicer. I have been replying to the emails from writers I follow and enjoying our short exchanges of long messages. As a writer, I know how much it means when people reply to my writing. So, reply to your favorite writer (or me)! They will love it.

So, if you are looking for me, you know where to find me :)