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Are Tech Blogs The Hello Magazine Of The Online World?
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One thing that I have noticed since working in this space is the amount of hype that one single industry can create within itself. Every single announcement no matter how small or trivial is blogged about, tweeted, re tweeted, linked to, shared on Facebook, video reviewed etc. The pattern is pretty simple in that it first gets covered by big blogs like Techcrunch and Mashable and it filters down and is disseminated through the internet by a legion of smaller followers. I have never seen an industry quite like it for the hype. A new and trendy service can be adding something like a small button or tab to their homepage and it will be sensationalized into a story of huge importance.
Really? A new feature being added to a website is big news now? I can’t remember who said it to me but somebody once commented that sites like Techcrunch and Mashable are like the Hello or OK magazines of the tech world and I tend to agree that they are just a huge continuous hype machine churning out sensational stories and glamorizing tech. Is that a bad thing? Not at all in my opinion and the 4 million odd people who read Techcrunch by RSS must be enjoying it and so do I. The one issue that I do have is that it can be very deceiving for entrepreneurs in that the success stories are always glamorized and made to seem very achievable. They are achievable but they take a huge amount of hard work, luck and financing and for every Twitter there are 1000s of failed start ups we never hear about.
Much in same way as young girls look up to Brad and Angelina and dream that they could have their lives of luxury one day there are also tech entrepreneurs all over the world who load up the pages of Techcrunch and see themselves in the shoes of Mark Zuckerberg running Facebook and having billion dollar valuations.We all need to dream a little and these tech blogs let us all do that on a daily basis and the real beauty of the Internet is that it is such a level playing field that you really can make it. You can be the next Zuckerberg but just don’t forget that he was a programming genius who has raised close to a billion in funding and has a team of 100s of talented engineers in Silicon Valley so you and your mate sitting in your bedroom with a couple of grand are naturally going to have a tougher time making it. No harm dreaming though!
I guess the moral of the story is to read it all with a pinch of salt and don’t get too wrapped up in all the hype.
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Very pragmatic post.
I do think we go over the top with ‘reacting’ to such insignificant news i.e. a new button but at the same time, we are so hungry for something ‘new’ that we’ll pretty much take anything we can get.
As with any trend / movement, I’m not sure who’s more at fault – the sender or recipient.
A
Yeah well it is all supply and demand. The demand for blogs like TC is obv there so they are more than happy to supply the content
Well said. What I find particularly frustrating is when the rush to be first and the desire to write up things as dramatic swamps out saner analysis.
Adam’s right about the hunger for “new”, but it can be fed by ways other than jumping up and exclaiming the world has ended / is about to change forever because a social network moved a menu item.
For example, an awful lot of changes and services get huge initial coverage and then almost nothing as if it’s the instant judgement that’s the only sensible one to make, rather than waiting a while and collating how things have turned out into a “new” (yes, you can call it that) report.
Yeah I think you are right Mark about needing to take a step back and really analyze things before making judgement but that doesn’t get you the millions of RSS readers and traffic. We live in a world where people just want news in an instant feed and it is getting worse TBH! I don’t mind the speed of the news it is more the fact that the news is so trivial sometimes and seems similar to trashy tabloid style news
Eh, Niall, don’t you want to make this something similar? Or did I read your comment over here incorrectly? http://trusttommy.com/2009/10/22/the-irish-twitter-complex-2/#comment-17538
I really am not getting what this blog is at all, am I?
“A new and trendy service can be adding something like a small button or tab to their homepage and it will be sensationalized into a story of huge importance.”
Do you have an example to support this?
Hey Steph. I guess the most recent one that stood out for me would be the retweet button on Twitter. Mashable had this as breaking news at a few different times, including when it was a rumour. http://tinyurl.com/ydfea5o
There are 100s Steph but here is the first one I found http://xrl.us/bggb42
I know tons of people use Twitter and all but it’s just one little button being added to a site at the end of the day!
But surely every industry has this. How many websites and newspapers cover up to the min claims about transfer news between sports clubs? They hype up any suggestion of a big player move based on a random comment from a club player or agent. Then you don’t hear about it again for the rest of the season. Or when sky news reports actions of politicians as it happens while trying to give some analysis on demand.
I presume if your a fan of any particular interest there are websites which publish, hype up or perhaps don’t explain the full story of issues relevant to that issue. A kin to hello doing it for those who have an interest in celebrities.
Eoin
Yeah transfer is a good example also although a lot of that is based on lies and rumour. At least with the tech stories it tends to be the truth. I guess hype sells newspapers and magazines in the same way as it send readers to tech blogs!
Niall
its worse they’re the VIP magazines of this world. Living in a Ghetto that few outside the tech world even care about
Dermot
Yeah I agree Dermot that all of us in the Tech world get sucked in to this sort of bubble. We go around thinking something like a list feature on Twitter is going to change the world when 99/100 people you would ask in the street wouldn’t have a clue what you are talking about!
I often wonder if posts like this perpetuate the whole thing… I mean, I know a lot of people who would find the news that there’s to be a “new button” added to a page they frequent as interesting (or perhaps more interesting) than a post that speculates on whether or not posting it in the first place was correct
I suppose there’s no reason not to apply this blog post to itself, is there?
You speak in riddles Marc! Nah I get your point and it does of course lead to the hype cycle! Sure some people might even be reading this and popping over to TC and Mashable for the first time as a result and becoming new subscribers!
Maybe it’s because I’m looking at it from a design & dev point of view but “just one little button being added to a site” is understating that particular example. To me that’s a update to the functionality of the application. I’m not sure what proportion of Twitter users use the Twitter.com interface over a mobile or desktop client but it’s the first port of call for all new users at least. It changes the interaction for them.
Social media is what Mashable is all about so I’m not surprised they had it as breaking news.
Yeah a large amount of people still use the web for Twitter. I don’t think it is wrong to be reporting that sort of stuff just wonder why people hype it up into such a big deal! I guess Twitter and Facebook are just so trendy and widely used at the moment that even 1 new button will change the whole user experience. People are interested in reading about it so can hardly blame them for writing about it I guess