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Why Do People Post Useless and Uninteresting Information?
A pet peeve of mine is people’s tendency to post useless and uninteresting information everywhere. It might be part of human nature, but it’s still a moronic thing to do…IMNSHO. I’m sure you can figure out what that abbreviation stands for.
“Aren’t you being just a tad hypocritical here,” is the obvious response to my comment. “You’re writing a blog filled with personal opinions; and look just a few days ago: you wrote a long post about your vacation! It’s of no practical use to anyone.”
Well, that’s fine, in my opinion. I may post useless information, but I try to make it interesting. It’s just when things are both useless and uninteresting that things get really ugly. A perfect example of this is people’s public diaries on web communities. Or personal blogs. Or whatever is the currently popular way to exercise exhibitionistic tendencies. I don’t mind if the posts are written coherently and with an idea about their audience, though.
Since I like lists, I decided to make a short list of the combination of blog traits that I thoroughly hate:
- Short and pointless posts
“Today I fed my cat and watched Oprah. Yay me!“
Argh! Why do you post this? For whom is it intended? Who cares? If it was long and pointless it might be an interesting read, but the combination of short and pointless makes it…well. Pointless! - The public paradox
“Oh, yesterday was awful! He was there! And he, like, looked at me!”
Some people have the urge to write about their personal events, but they also feel that they don’t need to give details about the context. Who is he? Why is it a strange thing that he looked at you? If I don’t know any of this, your post is pointless! In itself, this style of writing isn’t bad – it’s an excellent way of communicating with friends. Or in IMs. But don’t post this information on a public place where everyone is invited to read it unless you make all the information available; it becomes a paradox, where you try to be public and private at the same time.
Note: of course there are exceptions where this is okay. If the writer knows that his or her reader base is fully aware of the events, this isn’t a big deal. It only becomes an issue if these posts are promoted for public viewing somehow. - De-personalized summary
“This blog is interesting: [Quote]“
I see a lot of posts that quote articles or other blogs or post a cool link somewhere, without adding anything to the original post. Why? What’s the point of posting the information on your own place without adding a personal touch? I seriously don’t get the point. Sure, it adds a tiny bit: the fact that the poster likes or dislikes or finds the thing linked to/quoted interesting. But it really could use a brief explanation of why this is of value to him or her. I thoroughly believe that there is not a single link or quote that says this by itself: people’s opinions and reactions are too diverse.
This post’s title is misleading: I’m not really asking why people write useless and uninteresting things. We all have a lesser or greater exhibitionistic streak, and we all have a lesser or greater need for writing down our thoughts - these two can easily be combined in blogs and such. I don’t oppose this in any way. I just wish that people would think a little bit about their audience as well before they post something.
What inspired me to write down this rant of mine? A while ago I wrote a post about my new computer. To some, that information is completely useless; but to some it might be of interest to see what kind of components other people have chosen. I decided that this information was potentially interesting to some of my intended readers. (Technically inclined people with various cultural and geek interests.) A few days after that I thought about posting another post; this one would deal with my stupidity in not buying a new power supply at the same time as the rest of the parts.
However, after a few paragraphs I realized that the potential interest of that post was virtually zero! It might have been mildly amusing, and it might have made someone else avoid making my mistake…but the potential interest in it was lower than usual. I post random weird stuff now and then, but I try to analyze whether or not it is of potential interest to others. I wish more people would do that.
November 14th, 2006 at 11:41 pm
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I see a lot of posts that quote articles or other blogs or post a cool link somewhere, without adding anything to the original post.
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Well, while I agree that there are some really pointless self-publishing going on, you have to keep in mind that the original purpose of a blog was to link to cool stuff. Originally, blogs were just a log of cool and interesting sites found on the web, which allowed people to go straight to the interesting things and bypass the junk.
But it would be nice if “this is interesting” would be followed with explanations of why. Maybe it is interesting to you because you’re a hobbyist dentist who is also a fan of the Three Stooges, but what does it have to do with ME?
November 15th, 2006 at 12:15 am
True, true. I really don’t know what the original purpose of blogs was, to be honest – I just view the lack of personal additions and reflections as…not using the blog’s full potential. Or something like that. As an example, I visit a few link-related pages that specialize in spreading cool stuff: games, pictures, internet fads and so on. I love pages like that, but I don’t really see the point of using a versatile medium like a blog for the same purpose.
November 16th, 2006 at 1:53 pm
I think the general problem behind your reasoning is the assumption that all blogs are public. Of course they are, but that is not the point. The point is that they are not intended as public blogs. They are not intended to be read by anyone – even though it’s possible for anyone to read it. They are not aimed at being even mildly interesting to the generic person visiting by chance. They are meant as a way of communication, a handy way of broadcasting your diary, personal thoughts or just stray comments to anyone interested enough to visit, instead of having to have the very same conversation a dozen of times on ICQ/MSN/Skype/e-mail/snail-mail/phone or what not.
Having said that, I agree with you. Most blogs are simply not interesting. Most of the time I figure that this is because I don’t know them good enough or is interested enough about them to read anything they might feel like saying at the moment. Instead I choose the other forms of communication I mentioned above, where I can talk to them about things that I do find interesting about them and where I can steer them away from subjects that I don’t find interesting.
In the end it’s your choice. If you find that a specific blog or post is not interesting, then why are you reading it?
November 16th, 2006 at 9:15 pm
I think you assume that I’m referring to obviously personal blogs. Of course I don’t expect a blog where the writer has chosen to only use it as a means of communicating with his or her friends to be of general interest. What irks me is when people try to promote blogs like that; or when they have a blog that places itself in-between that they feel the urge to invite people to read. Note my references to the intended reader base.
The last question may or may not be rethorical, but the obvious response is: if a person doesn’t want the general public to read something, he or she shouldn’t post it on the web for public access.
December 17th, 2006 at 2:41 am
[...] I tend to post rants about useless and unnecessary blog posts, and still I do these things myself. Links to supposedly cool stuff, small comments that no one else finds interesting and so on. I think that I’m aware of this though. If there’s one thing I hate it’s when people claim that you must be perfect yourself in order to complain about others’ behaviours. Screw that. It’s small-minded schoolboy behaviour – a weak defense against valid criticism that one isn’t prepared to recognize. Oh, and look! It seems that one of my very first blog posts was on this topic! Good God, I’m starting to repeat myself already. [...]