Comments on: Is Social Media Making Us More Dumber?

By: Niall Harbison

Niall Harbison — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 22:33:54 +0000

Peter agree with he duplicate content and a good thing is that on Twitter unlike blogs people will have seen it and RT instead of blogging it again and putting their spin on it. I suppose it is more a time waster than making us dumber as a lot of the social stuff I waste my time on is pretty decent content but I do also watch the cats falling off roofs on YouTube

By: Peter Tanham

Peter Tanham — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 18:29:48 +0000

For the most part I’d disagree. If people used to blog things that can now be shared via facebook or twitter – “look at this new video”, “check out this cool link” etc. – then I think it’s only a good thing for the state of blogging. I’ve noticed that my rss reader has become less clogged with repeated posts from different people about the same thing (e.g. several people posting the one viral video or the latest announcement from apple). For me this is a good thing. I get that content through twitter & facebook, it doesn’t need to be archived and I don’t mind if I miss some of it, and now I read & enjoy a much higher proportion of posts that pop into my rss reader – even if there are less posts by each blogger.

There is one area that I would agree with you however, and that’s with regards to time. Is it making us dumber? – No. Is it wasting much of our time? – probably. Here I can see a conflict with blogging, whereby somebody, instead of writing a great blog post, sends a couple of tweets or sits on facebook for an hour (or watches too many youtube clips – my personal poison!).

We all know that a well written, good quality post takes time, and I would agree that time spent on other “lighter” social media sites could pose a danger to this. I’d agree with Emmet that the novelty will wear off twitter a bit, and the serious bloggers might return to writing more frequent posts.

By: Emmet Kelly

Emmet Kelly — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 13:45:38 +0000

I agree with Daragh – you both in fact. I think bloggers are bloggers, and once the twitter novely wears off a little, the distracted bloggers, who have something to say, will say it. I found I blogged less when tweeting, and now I do both. It just takes balance. They are different forms of social media, and serve different functions… you just need to try them to find where the balance lies for you, or your company. Blogging takes thought, tweeting much less so, and maybe many blogs were too long and self indulgent before twitter anyway. Shorter blogs are often better, getting to the point quicker. I also think twitter has taught many bloggers the value of pics and video links.

By: Barney

Barney — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 13:02:36 +0000

I presume the blog title is ironic…”…more dumber….” (sic)
I do agree with the general tone of the post and especially that the web is becoming too fluid….

By: Niall Harbison

Niall Harbison — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 12:56:48 +0000

Yeah all the big bloggers abd pro guys are all still around alright but I think the barrier is slightly higher now for people looking to get in to blogging. Not that the barrier is higher but just that Twitter and Facebook is a great way for people to express themselves and less are taking the step up to full blogging. Apart from businesses, they are getting in to blogging in a big way because a bunch of us are telling them that it is a smart thing to do, which it is.

By: Darragh

Darragh — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 08:33:56 +0000

Good point Niall – I do think there’s a difference to being a blogger and having a blog though. I’d reckon all the people I would count as “bloggers” still update, post and publish, as well as engage in social media, while those who got a blog to just have one are doing so less. Then with the advent of group blogs and the like, people tend to post less on their own and more on the other ones.

I wouldn’t say we’re losing bloggers – if anything the vast amount of information is opening up their blogging input like never before. It is however a matter of time, too. It’s the difficulty of doing something and then having to blog about it too.