A lot of people don't grasp that second part. (I'll admit that I often struggle with it.) They don't understand the line between interesting/fun/useful and irrelevant/nonsensical/pointless rambling. I think that's because value is like beauty, it's in the eye of the beholder. So to determine whether or not what you're sharing is valuable, you only need to ask one important question. Is what I'm sharing benefiting anyone other than myself?
Because there are times when what you're sharing isn't relevant to anyone other than yourself, your own ego! You're not creating value. You're creating noise! And in a world where everyone is suffering from information overload and pressed for time, what you're really doing is being inconsiderate and downright annoying to others. For those too narcissistic to realize and/or care, life isn't all about ME, ME, ME! Most people, for the most part, don't care about you. I know, that hurts. But ride that sting out for a minute and let it soak in.
Take Twitter for example. Why must people Tweet their own blog post 2, 3, 4, 5 times or more a day! We get it. You wrote a new post and we're proud of you. Now if we want to read it chances are we already subscribe to your RSS feed or clicked on the link you Tweeted the first time around. But to repeat Tweet over and over again, it just seems so pushy and screams "look at me!" Are these people starving for attention? Did they miss a couple hugs growing up? I don't know what the deal is, but I really wish it would stop already. And don't even get me started on people that obsessively ReTweet old content they wrote from weeks, months, even years ago! Every blog has an Archive and every idiot with a half a brain knows how to browse through it. In other words, spamming out your own content isn't cool or appreciated. So shush.
After all, statistics say that over 70% of Tweets are ignored. That means chances are nobody is reading what you're Tweeting anyway! And regardless of how many Twitter Followers you believe are hanging on your every word, the more narcissistic and spammy your Tweets become the more your Twitter stream is being muted in their TweetDeck. It leaves a bad taste in people's mouths when you shove your content down their throats, up to and over 3 meals a day!
I call this the "I don't give a shit if your life is busy what I have to say is important so pay attention to me right now damn it approach." Whatever method they use to shamelessy plug their work over and over again, the message remains the same. That message says, "I don't value your time but you should value what I wrote and read/comment/share immediately!" I understand that everyone in this life wants to be heard and appreciated. And the competition to be heard and appreciated is fierce, especially online! But if you don't get the response you were hoping for it may just mean people are busy and haven't opened their Google Reader yet. Or they read it, but didn't find it valuable enough to comment and/or share. And that's ok. Not everything you write will be gold. You're not Hemingway. You're a blogger. So check yourself.
While your fragile digital ego may be hurt, it's really your ego that got you into this mess to begin with! So you really can’t blame anyone for unsubscribing, unfriending, or unfollowing people online. There is simply too much noise. And that noise leads to the crumbling of one’s sanity! Less noise. More sanity. Less social media. More living. Overall, more value!
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