Reading Too Many Blogs Can Be Dangerous To Your Health
09. Oct, 2007 
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Were you ever curious to count how many hours a day do you spend reading blogs? Try to pay attention to this issue for a couple of days. You’ll be amazed. I’ve just discovered that I spend more than 4 hours every day reading other people’s blogs (and I wonder where is my productivity). I cannot but agree with Caroline Middlebrook, who pointed out 11 pointless blog posts that waste my time. I promised myself I’m going to cut this time to 30 minutes. As I cannot read faster, I’ll have to give up some of them.
Like Caroline and I, more and more blog readers strive to get their productivity back, by cutting blogs from their RSS feed, by filtering more thoroughly the content which they will follow up on a regular basis. But how do we measure the quality of a web page? The filtering criteria are personal, and usually they are objective (dilluted information, off-topic ramblings, self-centered musings). Another kind of criteria, hard to anticipate, not so easy to prevent, are the ones who aim the ego of your readers. Imagine the following situations (I’ve given points of reader appreciation according to the personal scale of a sensitive reader):
1. You’ve launched a meme and kindly ask your readers to follow up on their own blogs. How do you proceed afterwards:
- a. You thank all your readers who participated, exclusively on your blog (5 points)
- b. You go and comment on each participant’s blog, thanking her for the contribution (10 points)
- c. You write a thank you note on your blog, but you leave “thank you” comments only on the blogs of your friends (-5 points)
- d. You only comment of your friends’ blogs (-10 points)
- e. You don’t show any sign of appreciation (0 points)
For the sensitive reader, the most offending cases are c. and d.
Most of us understand that you are busy, and you cannot take time to treat each reader individually. However, the sensitive guy who saw you have other priorities may not be so communicative and helpful the next time you’ll challenge him to some interaction. If you don’t need this reader, OK, but if you want his appreciation, make him feel for a moment like the center of your attention. He did that for you in the first place.
2. You organize a group writing project. How do you handle it:
- a. You publish clear participation rules, which you carefully follow, making sure you include all submissions in your final post (10 points)
- b. You make some rules, but you change them to please some of your readers, disqualifying other readers’ entries (-10 points)
- c. You have clear rules, but you forget to include some entries (-10 points)
- d. You publish the project round-up using links with no-follow attribute, because you are afraid of penalties (-10 points)
- e. You forget to publish the results (-1,000,000 points)
If you had a popular blog before behaving like in b., c., or d. cases, don’t worry. You’ll still keep your popularity, only it will be a negative one this time.
As a general rule, whenever a blogger requires interactivity from readers, he also needs to give them something back: give them the feeling of belonging to a world, the small world of his blog. Otherwise, they may feel excluded and become runaways, like Kim Krause Berg explains in her parallel From Woodstock to Social Media:
Not having an outlet, I became a runaway by the age of 13. It wasn’t that I was a bad kid, because I rarely got into trouble. It was because there was this world that made no sense whatsoever and nobody cared what I had to say or felt about it.
I didn’t know where my people were.
If you want your readers to know where their people are, make sure you show them you care for what they say and feel. Give them a sense for reading your blog. They are not bad kids, after all, are they?
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Great points. So basically and if I understand correctly, the two points you listed help readers categorize whether or not a blog is worth reading, right?
For the meme part, point “e” is what many bloggers tend to do, by simply thanking “everyone” generally and moving on.
I like this line:
“As a general rule, whenever a blogger requires interactivity from readers, he also needs to give them something back: give them the feeling of belonging to a world, the small world of his blog.”
What in your view, would you say to people who might answer such a thing with something like “Well, I am already giving my content to the people.”?
Hey Bes, these are not necessarily signs that a blog is not worth reading. The blog could be great. They are rather signs that a blog is not worth participating in its “social life”: if the content is good, these sensitive readers will probably stay as lurkers, while if the content sucks, they may leave the place.
Giving content is great, but the way you pack it is also important. I can give somebody a book, saying “read it, because you are too stupid to have a conversation with me”, or saying “please read this book, because I want to share my impressions with you and I want to hear your point of view”. The book is the same. The act of giving is the same. The frame of mind makes the difference.
Not having an outlet, I became a runaway by the age of 13. It wasn’t that I was a bad kid, because I rarely got into trouble. It was because there was this world that made no sense whatsoever and nobody cared what I had to say or felt about it.
I didn’t know where my people were.
The two points you listed help readers categorize whether or not a blog is worth reading, right? ore More and more blog readers strive to get their productivity back.
Like Caroline and I, more and more blog readers strive to get their productivity back, by cutting blogs from their RSS feed, by filtering more thoroughly the content which they will follow up on a regular basis.
Giving content is great, but the way you pack it is also important. I can give somebody a book, saying “read it, because you are too stupid to have a conversation with me”, or saying “please read this book, because I want to share my impressions with you and I want to hear your point of view”. The book is the same. The act of giving is the same. The frame of mind makes the difference.
Fair comments about reading to many blogs. I do it too.