Am I becoming superficial?
13 April 2008As a blogger you have to read a lot, scan hundreds of short articles and write up your thoughts immediately. So there’s hardly any time left to really think about the bigger picture. Is this making us superficial?
Today I didn’t feel that good and was too tired to do some serious Web 2.0 reporting for The Next Web. On a normal Sunday – after an easy start – I read my feeds, empty my inbox and write a couple of stories. Today I only wrote one about my upcoming trip to San Fransisco. When I sensed this was going to be it for today, I decided to read the articles I had saved on Instapaper.
So I’ve read some really interesting stories. Like The Zen of Blogging by Hunter Nuttall and People power transforms the web in next online revolution by Charles Leadbeater. I also turned a few pages of Everything bad is good for you, an eye-opening book by Steven Berlin Johnson, a guy I really admire for his work.
All this captivating stuff got me thinking, and not just about the content. The thorough analysis and deep thoughts of the writers made me wonder if I wasn’t getting a bit too superficial. Since I was only trying to keep up with the fast pace of the technology industry and hardly saved any time for slower thinking.
And maybe it isn’t just me. During The Next Web Conference, Robert Scoble talked about the friend divide. Some users have loads of online contacts on therefore a rich experience, yet most people don’t have any friends – especially at the beginning of their social media adventure – which leads to a “really crappy experience”.
Although I think he touched an interesting subject, I was disappointed that he didn’t talk about the big picture. There was no word about implications for society or whatsoever. Maybe this has something to do with the enormous amounts of information Scoble has to process everyday. Does he has any time left to evaluate everything he reads? And do you?
I know the theory about bloggers and their capability of processing stuff in an incredible fast way. Like Chris Grant from Joystiq said in the book 30 blogging heroes:
Being able to rapidly educate yourself on a subject is an asset for a blogger, as is a memory that allows you to retain even the most trivial of details.
Yet I do think that this fast-covering attitude leads to a more superficial blogger. Therefore, I’m considering a blog-free day in the weekend, solely devoted to inspiration and thinking about the influence of the web on bigger issues. First thing on my list? The future thinking organization The Long Now foundation.
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Categorie: blog inspiration
Tags: inspiration, robert scoble, superficial, the long now foundation
Your consiousness of the struggles many (wannabe)problogger face is good. Yet in my humble opinion i think that for those that are too close to the subject, one can say that only in retrospect they are able to see the bigger picture and commit to profound analysis of what the future may bring based on the past and the present.
But who am i?
I use different time-slots for different activities. During the day I am often too stressed to take my time to think things over so I write quick and small posts. In the evening I sit down, have a glass of cognac, and take my time to stare at the ceiling and think about stuff. That produces longer posts which often show more of my opinion on a subject.
@Eurvin, I guess you’re right. But I think it sure helps when you read articles by experts and scientists to see what they think of today’s and future developments. This will help shaping your own image of the big picture. (that sounds weird ;-))
@Boris, sounds good. Although you still have the stress of missing out scoops…