Do You Even?
One of my largest complaints about social media is content created. More specifically, a lack of content creation. I can't remember who it was, but years ago a social media powerhouse once claimed that there are two kinds of social media users: (1) content creators and (2) content distributors. Now, most of us generally distribute content in one form or another, whether it's our own or someone else's, or whether it's just something we found on the interwebz and thought it was interesting enough to share to our collective streams.
However, I've noticed in the past few months that a vast majority of social media users aren't content creators, they're not even proper content distributors. What do I mean by that? Simply put, when you share something with a friend or colleague you usually preface it with comment or some other sort of introduction:
Hey, check out this cool band. Awesome beats.
I saw this on the internet and think it's hilarious, what do you think?
This article about the changing climate is spot on! Reminds me of something my Environmental Sciences professor said.
The point is, we don't typically just hand a CD to a friend and walk away leaving them to wonder why they're suddenly holding a CD. We don't typically hand a newspaper article to someone without explaining why we're sharing it with a friend or co-worker.
We're social creatures. That means we share our thoughts, our feelings and our insights with those around us. And yet, online, on social media, sharing has become so incredibly easy that most people don't even bother explaining why they're sharing content in the first place.
A quick look at my stream in Google+ shows any number of examples of what I'm talking about:
Now, these are merely examples of what I see all day long on, not only Google+, but on Facebook and other social media sites. If they're interesting I may even read these posts. However, if the original poster or sharer doesn't even think enough of the content they're flooding my stream with, then how can they expect a comment or a Like or a Plus-1?
I know some of them have become a little annoyed at the lack of engagement, but what invites others to engage with them? I've also noticed where people are so worried about their SEO standing, especially after Google changed their algorithms to prefer better content (which it determines in part by shares on Google+) that they've become angry over not being shared on Google's social layer. But why would I share a no comment? Why wouldn't I just go to the original source and share that content? Why would I share noncontent?
On that note? Why should anyone take the time to comment on your post where there is no opinion being shared nor original comment?
For months now I've been considering pruning out my Google+ circles, removing people who don't have an opinion, who only post other people's content without any sort of comment on their own. I've staved off that plan simply because my Circles would nearly disappear. So few people are posting anything of worth at all.Sure, they shared that article from CNN or ACLU.org or somewhere else on the interwebz, sure they shared a funny image or one of those sendmecards (or whatever that is), and sure they share things I find of interest, but without their own voice added to the mix, why are they even in my Circles? Why don't I just go to the source?
After Google+ was rolled out to the world there was one guy I had in my Circles whose entire stream was nothing but article shares. Share after share after share of political articles. Not a single one of them with a comment of his own. This was before Google killed Reader and I had the feeling he just liked hitting that share button. I asked him once why he didn't have an opinion about anything he shared and he became mad, ensuring me he had plenty of opinions. I told him to look at his stream and show me where he had one. Without comment I couldn't be sure if he was agreeing with the article's content, not agreeing with it, wanting to discuss it or just happy with his finger on the share button.
I uncircled him and haven't lost an ounce of sleep since.
A local woman runs a Twitter and blog for social events here where I live. She's the same way. Just share after share after share of her blog or Twitter posts (which led back to the blog) and nary a comment on the content. I asked her once why she was even on Google+ and she said "to get the word out." What word? She didn't introduce her content, she link dumped her blog. That was all. She didn't share it with a "Colorado" or local area community, she shared it with the world, and I promise you, there are billions of people on this planet who don't care about what's going on this weekend in her small town.
But, as people will, she argued with me. Told me she was a social media manager in her day job and I wasn't an expert, so I didn't know what I was talking about.... I think she gave up on Google+ because I haven't seen her posting here for a while.
And that brings us to another layer of this rant. Again, we call it social media. People signed up for MySpace because it was cool and new. Social media was in it's infancy. When Facebook came along they treated it like a special club. Were you invited? Only Ivy Leaguers could get in, then only people with a .edu email address and then finally the rest of us (I was out of college when FB came around). Suddenly everyone was on Facebook because it was elitist. Or at least, people thought they were elite. We all had our MySpace friends whom we connected with on FB, our old college friends, high school, business, family, everyone was suddenly in the same place. People were reconnecting. They were being social.
Then it became mundane. A Like replaced a "cool" or "awesome!" A +1 replaced a note of appreciation. A retweet replaced a comment of support.
Social media had made us far less social, in my opinion. Most people are for too busy throwing things at the wall to see what sticks than they are in having a genuine back and forth. I don't know if they're insecure and fearful of sharing their opinion or if they're generally without opinion. And if they are, then why on Earth am I connected to them?
However, I've noticed in the past few months that a vast majority of social media users aren't content creators, they're not even proper content distributors. What do I mean by that? Simply put, when you share something with a friend or colleague you usually preface it with comment or some other sort of introduction:
Hey, check out this cool band. Awesome beats.
I saw this on the internet and think it's hilarious, what do you think?
This article about the changing climate is spot on! Reminds me of something my Environmental Sciences professor said.
The point is, we don't typically just hand a CD to a friend and walk away leaving them to wonder why they're suddenly holding a CD. We don't typically hand a newspaper article to someone without explaining why we're sharing it with a friend or co-worker.
We're social creatures. That means we share our thoughts, our feelings and our insights with those around us. And yet, online, on social media, sharing has become so incredibly easy that most people don't even bother explaining why they're sharing content in the first place.
A quick look at my stream in Google+ shows any number of examples of what I'm talking about:
Now, these are merely examples of what I see all day long on, not only Google+, but on Facebook and other social media sites. If they're interesting I may even read these posts. However, if the original poster or sharer doesn't even think enough of the content they're flooding my stream with, then how can they expect a comment or a Like or a Plus-1?
I know some of them have become a little annoyed at the lack of engagement, but what invites others to engage with them? I've also noticed where people are so worried about their SEO standing, especially after Google changed their algorithms to prefer better content (which it determines in part by shares on Google+) that they've become angry over not being shared on Google's social layer. But why would I share a no comment? Why wouldn't I just go to the original source and share that content? Why would I share noncontent?
On that note? Why should anyone take the time to comment on your post where there is no opinion being shared nor original comment?
For months now I've been considering pruning out my Google+ circles, removing people who don't have an opinion, who only post other people's content without any sort of comment on their own. I've staved off that plan simply because my Circles would nearly disappear. So few people are posting anything of worth at all.Sure, they shared that article from CNN or ACLU.org or somewhere else on the interwebz, sure they shared a funny image or one of those sendmecards (or whatever that is), and sure they share things I find of interest, but without their own voice added to the mix, why are they even in my Circles? Why don't I just go to the source?
After Google+ was rolled out to the world there was one guy I had in my Circles whose entire stream was nothing but article shares. Share after share after share of political articles. Not a single one of them with a comment of his own. This was before Google killed Reader and I had the feeling he just liked hitting that share button. I asked him once why he didn't have an opinion about anything he shared and he became mad, ensuring me he had plenty of opinions. I told him to look at his stream and show me where he had one. Without comment I couldn't be sure if he was agreeing with the article's content, not agreeing with it, wanting to discuss it or just happy with his finger on the share button.
I uncircled him and haven't lost an ounce of sleep since.
A local woman runs a Twitter and blog for social events here where I live. She's the same way. Just share after share after share of her blog or Twitter posts (which led back to the blog) and nary a comment on the content. I asked her once why she was even on Google+ and she said "to get the word out." What word? She didn't introduce her content, she link dumped her blog. That was all. She didn't share it with a "Colorado" or local area community, she shared it with the world, and I promise you, there are billions of people on this planet who don't care about what's going on this weekend in her small town.
But, as people will, she argued with me. Told me she was a social media manager in her day job and I wasn't an expert, so I didn't know what I was talking about.... I think she gave up on Google+ because I haven't seen her posting here for a while.
And that brings us to another layer of this rant. Again, we call it social media. People signed up for MySpace because it was cool and new. Social media was in it's infancy. When Facebook came along they treated it like a special club. Were you invited? Only Ivy Leaguers could get in, then only people with a .edu email address and then finally the rest of us (I was out of college when FB came around). Suddenly everyone was on Facebook because it was elitist. Or at least, people thought they were elite. We all had our MySpace friends whom we connected with on FB, our old college friends, high school, business, family, everyone was suddenly in the same place. People were reconnecting. They were being social.
Then it became mundane. A Like replaced a "cool" or "awesome!" A +1 replaced a note of appreciation. A retweet replaced a comment of support.
Social media had made us far less social, in my opinion. Most people are for too busy throwing things at the wall to see what sticks than they are in having a genuine back and forth. I don't know if they're insecure and fearful of sharing their opinion or if they're generally without opinion. And if they are, then why on Earth am I connected to them?
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