GUEST BLOG: Please Retweet by Emily Benet

Emily Benet, author of The Temp, is back with her new novel Please Retweet, about a celebrity social media manager. Today - the publication date of Please Retweet! - Emily joins Uncovered to share her thoughts on how social media can often take over our lives, and especially that of heroine May...

Check it, check it - a novel for all us social media addicts

Do you ever randomly open your front door to check if someone's there? Even though no one's rung the door bell, do you think: let's just have a quick look
And after you've opened it and found no one there, do you go back and open it again a minute later, just on the off chance there's someone there now. Two minutes later, do you open it again?
No. You don't. You only open the door when someone knocks.
SO WHY ARE WE ALWAYS CHECKING OUR PHONES WHEN WE HAVEN'T EVEN RECEIVED A NOTIFICATION?!!!
As soon we wake up: We check our phone.
At the bus stop: We check our phone.
When we have to do something difficult to do at work: We check our phone.
At lunch: We check our phone.
When we go to the loo.... Ahem. Some people check their phones.
What are we hoping for? Well, I reckon we're hoping for a little high. 'Likes' on our Facebook post gives us a little high, a 'retweet' on Twitter gives us a little high, an email reply from someone gives us a little high, a comment on our blog gives us a little high...
How long does the little high last?
Approximately 1 minute.
Which is why we keep checking our phones! We need the the next high!
The main character in my new book, #PleaseRetweet, is always checking her phone because it's her job. May Sparks is paid to manage the online profiles of several C-list celebrities. They're a bunch of loose cannons who would offend half the planet if they were left to run their own Twitter and Facebook accounts by themselves. May has to be careful to get their voices right and not mix up accounts. As her client number grows it gets increasingly challenging.
Posting as several people means May is always getting notifications on her phone. She's experiencing so many highs and lows in her day it's like being on an electric seesaw that won't stop...
Imagine if your phone was going off every second of the day. And every notification required a clever reply.
Welcome to May's world. Coming out this August.

#PleaseRetweet is out in ebook from today, and paperback on 5th November