The Most Hypocritical Post Ever

Posted Mar 14 in Opinion tagged , ,

With Twitter, blogs, social media, voice recorders, the ability to take photos and videos and pass them on iMovie and so on. It makes creating and sharing content so damn easy. This at first glance seems like a good thing. However, how much of it is really useful content? And how much of it is just clutter and noise. A friend described Twitter as ‘The mouthpiece of mediocrity’ a premise I once Tweeted, before receiving the brief retort ‘bullshit’.
In my industry some of the noisiest bloggers and tweeters in marketing are largely young punks who know nothing about marketing (I’ll resist supplying links). However, because they are so busy outputting their voice is heard, or at the very least their voice makes it harder to detect voices of more merit (and I am sure it happens in other industries too).
I sort of blame Clay Shirky and his concept of the ‘cognitive surplus’. Of course he is not responsible for it, but he has given the movement a name. He suggests that the cognitive surplus is something that should be harnessed so that we should constantly invent, create, share, blog etc. However, the alternative point of view was eloquently put by ‘Spike Jonz‘. He said words to the effect of “We are all obsessed with outputting we should find more time to input.” That is, ensure we have the wisdom and content to make the output worthy of sharing.
So next time you’re getting the urge to share your profound wisdom on Twitter or a blog – ask yourself. Does the world really need to hear this? Why not read a book instead?
Yes I’m aware when you point a finger you’ve got three pointing back at yourself – and I am a serial offender against what I’m suggesting (to the point of this very article). So yes I’ll try and practice what I preach.

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Comments

  1. Katie Harris

    Mar 15th, 2011

    Hi Fritz

    Rare as it is for us to agree…

    ; P

    … I absolutely agree.

  2. Daniel Oyston

    Mar 15th, 2011

    It’s a valid point – think input instead or just output. The problem I find is that the more I read posts or a book the more ideas I have for posts! aaarrrggghhh

  3. A Reader

    Mar 21st, 2011

    One way of looking at Twitter is that it's more about phatic speech (which is perhaps a human form of the primate social grooming that we now find too icky to do literally) than the conveying of deep meaning. Phatic speech is supposed to ordinary. So arguably, if Twitter *wasn't* mediocre then it would be failing to serve its social purpose.

    That said, I would agree that spending time to read a book (and not just read it but to reflect upon it and discuss it) is time well spent. I would also suggest that *writing* a book (say, 20k words minimum) is also time well spent – even if the end product is a bit rubbish. Structuring and investigating an idea over a significant number of words is actually pretty tough. The better books are part of a broader conversation with other writers as well as a hypothetical reader.

    We tend to think of reading as a passive activity but my most productive experiences of reading have been far more active. Perhaps the book club is worth another ago?

  4. Fritz Bachen

    Apr 2nd, 2011

    Hi 'A reader' I totally agree with 'The Book Club'. The only thing is that they feel contrived and silly. It's hard to express how you feel about something like a book without feeling very self-indulgent and middle class

    @Daniel Oyston agree

    @Katie Harris also agree!

    Thanks for saying hi

  5. Todd Alchin

    Apr 5th, 2011

    Fritz, you're only wrong about one thing. Your posts are consistently better than most that I subscribe to – you should probably write more.

  6. www.muebles-en-huelva.com

    Oct 15th, 2011

    What namely you're saying is a terrible blunder.

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