Why “Me Too” Blogging Can Be Useful
Wednesday, February 11th, 2009 | blogging, content, education, websites, writing
I checked in with Twitter this morning to see what was new and noticed Justin Whitaker’s Tweet saying that he’d received his first nasty comment on his blog.
That made me curious so I went to his blog and found a post about “me too” blogging.
Justin is of the opinion that blogging is “incestuous” and that most bloggers “treat other blogs [as] grist for their own mill, as mere sounding boards for their own work”.
I agree that much of the content on blogs seems repetitive – and often these repetitive posts offer no new insights or information whatsoever. I’m not sure anyone could argue that all blog content is fresh and original.
However, I agree with Michael Durwin’s comment on Justin’s post that “me too” blogging does serve a purpose. “Me Too” blogging provides more access to content that is useful and relevant to people who might not see it otherwise:
I too often forget that most people in the world aren’t as tech savvy as those I talk to everyday. I talked to a recruiter the other day who wasn’t on Facebook because: “isn’t that site just for college kids?”. So before you accuse bloggers of writing “me too” posts to drive traffic, or to just regurgitate what other have already said, consider that not everyone has read all of those other blogs that you have. I live in Boston, arguably one of the most high tech cities in the US, home to countless colleges. I have 3 family members in college. I regularly speak at my alma mater. You’d be SHOCKED to know how few use Flickr, Facebook, or even know how to use Google.
It would be great if everyone could write new and fascinating content, but can’t blogging be a sort of conversation? You write something and I say, “I agree with that (me too!) and here’s my version and why I agree.” Does it matter that I’m “playing the blogging game” without bringing an “original voice to advance the discussion”?
I don’t think so.
If I were talking to someone in real life over coffee and I agreed with something they said and wanted to pass it along, would it be OK for them to say: “You’re not adding value to this discussion – you should stop talking.”
Again, I don’t think so.
A blog post has value if someone reads it and gets something out of it – who cares if 400 other people wrote about the same thing and hold the same opinion. The point is that the reader saw it and it was useful. It doesn’t matter if the other 399 blogs have the same information because the reader didn’t go there (and now doesn’t need to).
Justin suggests making a “concerted effort to kill “Me Too” blogging” in 2009 – I think our efforts would be better spent on making those “Me Too” posts well-written so that wherever a reader’s travels through the blogosphere lead – they lead to intelligent writing.
As a point of interest, Google “me too blogging” – there are lots of posts about this (including Justin’s), but since Justin’s post was the first one I came across, I stopped there.
2 Comments to Why “Me Too” Blogging Can Be Useful
I started blogging since I found so many useful articles, through search engines, on other peoples blogs. I thought it’s a nice way to share information. (I ended up following only a few of those blogs.)
So if there are tens or hundreds of other blogs with the same info wouldn’t matter to me.
See you
Stephan
September 25, 2009
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April 10, 2009