Tuesday, February 5, 2008

Don't Dumb Down For People Let Them Do So For Themselves

Seth's Blog has a post on "Dumbing down"

Think about the stuff you hear on the radio or read about in mass market publications. When they attempt to cover something you really know about, they seem pretty stupid, don't they? Oversimplifying to the point of getting it completely wrong. They're busy pandering to the masses, dumbing things down for the lowest common denominator.

He also has a post on Who are these people? via his Seth's Blog which sounds like he is talking about the same people.

If you look at the numbers, you soon realize that a huge portion of the population apparently:
  • Has read two books in the last year, Harry Potter and The DaVinci Code
  • Uses only two websites, Google and Facebook
  • Visits only a few blog posts a day, and every single one of them is on the home page of Digg
  • Watches only two or three TV shows, including the Super Bowl
  • Eats only at McDonalds
  • Watches only incredibly snarky or juvenile videos on YouTube
Many bloggers seem to be on a perpetual hunt for the front page of Digg. Sure, it brings you hordes of eyeballs, but then they turn around and leave. What's the point of that, really?

Doesn't it make more sense to incrementally earn the attention of a smaller, less glitzy but far more valuable group of people who actually engage with you? And the best part is, your odds of success are a lot better.

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