Comments on: Social Media and Stupidity

By: Online Publicity Journal

Online Publicity Journal — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 20:29:13 +0000

This is a great article with awesome points. Older folks seem to have such a discrimination against the younger folks and with articles such as the one you rightfully picked apart – it simply makes them look bad.

By: Jennifer Mattern

Jennifer Mattern — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 21:22:01 +0000

Well if you ever catch me doing that, feel free to yell at me. I don’t remember to go back over every post with fresh eyes later, and I’m sure I make lots of typos over here. 😉

I tend to look at those kinds of things differently based on the types of bloggers. If the blogger is serious all the time, strictly informational, etc., I tend to hold them to higher standards than those I would consider more personality-driven bloggers. For instance, I also blog on freelance writing issues. When I’m visiting the blogs of other writers, I don’t mind typos or non-standard grammar if the blog is simply conversational and between writers, but when they’re using the blog to push their services directly I’d expect them to be a bit more careful.

There was an interesting conversation on a forum I frequent a few weeks (maybe months now) back about this issue specifically with tech-oriented bloggers – on how some of the biggest couldn’t string sentences together to save their lives. I guess it all comes down to why our readers are here. If they like the information or personality enough, they seem to be pretty willing to overlook other issues.

By: Jen Zingsheim

Jen Zingsheim — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 13:08:34 +0000

Agreed…and, I’m okay with occasional typos too. What I’m referring to are basic mistakes (like its/it’s) made repeatedly on blogs by people purporting to be experts in PR and social media. I’m not going to name names, but these mistakes have happened often enough on blogs I read that it’s obvious these professional writers don’t know the difference.

Honestly, I wouldn’t hire a communication consultant who demonstrates in public, repeatedly, that he/she doesn’t know basic grammar.

But, who knows–these folks always talk about how busy they are, so apparently it doesn’t bother everyone as much as it bugs me. At 38, I’m “old school.” 🙂

By: Jennifer Mattern

Jennifer Mattern — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 14:56:29 +0000

I don’t mind things like occasional typos in blogging – I’m guilty of it myself often enough (the problem being that you often don’t have an opportunity to look at posts with “fresh eyes” before posting – you can re-read it 5 times right after writing, and still miss something that will be glaring at you a week later if you re-read the post).

The age group issue really was interesting for me, because as I was reading the article I was actually thinking about how it’s actually most older folks I know who are over-doing it with social media in particular (the ones who insist they have to try or use everything that comes out, whereas a lot of the younger folks find their own niches and learn how to use fewer tools more productively, especially in a personal / social way). And of course there are exceptions on both sides – it just seemed strange seeing one group bashed with another ignored.

By: Jen Zingsheim

Jen Zingsheim — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 14:34:55 +0000

You make a number of good points. I don’t get the “under 30” distinction anyway: from where I sit, there are plenty of “well over 30’s” who I think are negatively impacted by the rise in social media. They use the immediacy of a blog post to excuse errors in spelling and grammar (from communications professionals, no less).

IMHO, the biggest problem with social media and the glorification of multitasking is that it excuses a lack of concentration and focus. It has become epidemic, and the annoying thing is that people seem to think doing a dozen things at once (and none of them well) is something to be proud of. Blech. This behavior does not lend itself to critical thought, which is a problem. Again, this doesn’t have anything to do with how old someone is, I just see fewer people taking the next step and thinking things through.

There will always be those who take pride in doing good work and those who hurry and do a half-assed job. There are no age limits to that.

By: B.J. Smith

B.J. Smith — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 20:12:44 +0000

Heather, I would submit that “sales perspective” might be more appropriate than “PR perspective.” The facile title of the book and article certainly attract attention (ditto for “Social Media and Stupidity” up above, which caught my eye), but I’d prefer to have my PR more closely associated with revealing value and utility than just contributing to the sound and fury. I’m given to dreaming at times, yes.

B.J.

By: Heather Yaxley

Heather Yaxley — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 09:15:08 +0000

Thanks for the link – you demonstrate entirely the skills that prove the hypothesis that all under 30s are dumb is wrong by showing how false the assumptions are that have been made in the article. But from a PR perspective, the “dumb generation” is unfortunately such an easy hook as it has generated lots of coverage for the book. Sadly too much of it has simply lapped up the headline allegations rather than taking a robustly critical approach of the arguments.