What Do You Do With Blogs?

Here’s an idea I’ve been kicking around for a while,

WHAT DO WE DO WITH BLOGS?

I’ve put in loud all-caps for a reason. This week I’ve been watching Merlin Mann’s talk “Time burglars, attention sinks & bear traps or “Why does my email make me cry?”” (you can find it on Itunes via iTunesU>Duke>Campus>News and Communications). In the talk Merlin covers the usual GTD and Inbox Zero stuff. In amongst that he poses what is perhaps the critical question for not just for knowledge workers but for all of us trying to stay afloat in the media age.

WHAT DO WE DO WITH ALL THIS STUFF?

Well, he didn’t quite put it that way, but that’s close enough. What do we do with all the things that come across our desks, that come in the mail, that land in our inbox (real or virtual). We live with a superabundance of information. When I was a kid, it was hard, really hard to get information on things like music gear (or computers, or remote control cars or sports equipment). You had to beg, borrow or steal catalogues and some storeowners simply made it their business to keep customers in the dark (and far away from the cutting edge!). These days, it’s hard to filter the information that is available. That’s to say nothing of the information we can subscribe to, that will just keep piling up on us.

Which brings me back to the question of what we do about blogs. One thing I realise is that I’m becoming quite proficient at filtering things that have an obviously “professional” bent. Give me a music magazine or photography and I’ll do an OK job of assessing what is useful. I keep little and throw out a lot. But with blogs it’s a whole other story.

I’ve been culling the number of blogs I read on a regular basis for a while now. I used to scan hundreds of them, but now the list is so short I can recite it (which feels kinda “normal”). It’s easy to say that blog-reading contributes to some vague notion of “conversation” or builds up one’s general thinking. But does it? Really?

It’s not an issue where I have a lot of answers or suggestions. I’ve moved through realising how inefficient blogging can be (not that efficiency should always be worshipped). I’m now wondering about how blogging connects with activity in the world – with doing.