One of the interesting things about the blogosphere is the reception our word/topics/ideas are given by those that hear/read/watch them.
If you go back to the post about the echo chamber you’ll see my complaint about groupthink and why it is important to mix up our reading so that we are exposed to different ideas.
What it didn’t address there was influence and how two different people can write about the same topic and generate very different responses. For the sake of clarity let me flesh this out a bit for you.
Blogger A writes about why people should use ketchup in their cereal and receives a very tepid response and a couple of comments about why it is a ridiculous suggestion.
Blogger B covers the same topic in the very same manner. They don’t provide any more support for their position than Blogger A did, but the response they receive is far different.
It is enthusiastic and welcoming.
What Happened?
If their posts made an equally compelling argument for why we should use ketchup on our cereal you probably find yourself asking why they received different responses.
I suppose we could conduct a really thorough analysis and figure out who has a done a better job of building community and developing trust among their readers. We could talk about whether one of them routinely provides better content, but that is not really what we are talking about here.
What we are discussing is something that is harder to pin down, it is really more about charisma and the impact that has upon how people respond to us.
Is it Better To Be Liked Than Talented?
Chances are we have all seen the impact of charisma upon people in real life and I am willing to bet we have seen it in multiple places and situations.
There are people in school, work and life in general who are just well liked and it seems like it doesn’t matter what they do, people like them. You can tell the same story and the same joke and you won’t ever be as funny or clever as they are.
Sometimes I wonder if it is better to be well liked than talented. Call that a derivation of the is it better to be lucky than skilled question that people sometimes discuss.
Does Any Of This Matter?
Does any of this matter?
Is it really significant?
Does it have an impact on your our lives?
Those are subjective questions so I don’t a collective answer to share with you, but I am curious to hear what you think about the topic in general.
Have you run into this before? Does it bother you?
Let me know in the comments.
While so much has changed, nothing has changed. It can definitely still be a popularity contest. But l like you JUST said on my blog the other day, it’s kind of nice not to worry about it, and to just write what you want to write. Sometimes it will work, sometimes it won’t.
To answer your question: No. It doesn’t matter. 🙂
Hi Lisa,
It is much more enjoyable to write without concern or care, especially because it really doesn’t matter.
Most of the “chaos” surrounding blogging is narishkeit and provides little to no reason to be concerned.
Sometimes we forget it, or maybe I forget it.
I think energetically you are who you are and you are meant to be and do certain things. And same thing for the other guy. It’s always interesting when I see people wildly succeed who (to me) aren’t the one I’d pick to be on that platform or pedestal. If there’s a time when you say to yourself,”Hey, how come they get that and I don’t?” that’s the calling that compels you to go on to much more achievement in your own life. If we get to the jealousy stage that’s pratically like I shouting out,”DO THAT THING.” Then when the time is right, if we’ve put in the energy and done our work, it happens.
Hi Julie,
Funny you should mention that, I was thinking today about a few people who have been wildly successful in areas that I never would have imagined to be good for them.
Sometimes people fool us.