I’m not one to make predictions being that I have such an abysmal record. For instance, “Nobody will ever stop reading the actual newspaper and get their news on the Internet.” Or, “Who wants a phone/calendar/PDA all in one, that’s dumb.”
Jodi, the great prognosticator.
It’s my penchant for picking the exact opposite of what will happen that makes me so milquetoasty about Kindles, nooks, and iSlates. Even though I cannot imagine giving up actual books for an e-reader, I will not boldly make that claim lest some jackass come and dig in these here archives to prove me wrong.
Content aggregation presented as news
We’ve all been hearing the death rattle of the newspaper industry/mainstream media for years and years now. We get it, newspapers need to change. News gathering needs to change. Something needs to change. What really needs to change is content aggregators presenting themselves as actual news sources. That’s BULLSHIT. Just because you read the AP Newswire or 48 more news sources than I do does not make your link and paraphrasing of the original story news. Not at all. If you get on the horn (using the old-fashioned phone or newfangled e-mail/IM) and gather up your own new information about that story you’re paraphrasing, then I’ll call that news. Until then you’re really just a locally-focused MetaFilter with less interesting content. Got it?
Writing about Social Media
STOP THE MADNESS. Really, just stop. Everybody just stop. I beg you. I had to sift through roughly 260 blog posts about customer experience and customer service for a client today and (no exaggeration) 105 of them were related to Social Media. Fuck that noise. Those posts aren’t helping anyone. They aren’t adding to the “conversation” that’s allegedly so important to every marketer on the planet. After December 31, 2009 any article about Social Media is going to be considered noise (or worse, SPAM).
Music/Book/Design Blogs that lack a point of view
I recently ranted about the musicbloggers, and I just wanted to reiterate it. What’s the point of having a blog about your passion, whatever that may be, if you’re not going to push your point of view all over the place. Isn’t that the point? I don’t give a rat’s ass if some indie band from wherever the “it” place of 2010 is (Ashtabula, Ronkonkoma, King of Prussia) releases a video on YouTube. I want to know what you actually think about the music/books/designs you’re blogging about. (Please see, content aggregation is not news. The same applies to you 99.9% of arts bloggers.)