Tuesday of this week I had a realization as two live blog events were going on simultaneously. In one corner I was watching as all the major tech blogs covered the Apple “Back to the Mac” event which revealed a whole slew of Apple products to make fanboys like me wet themselves in glee. In another corner I was watching my friends at the Triangle AMA Analytics Camp live blog and tweet all of the information they were learning from that event.
Caught between these two events, I learned there’s a big difference is spreading information that is meant to be announcement, and sharing information learned from a keynote or other session. Still, it’s all like McDonald’s. Quick, greasy, and to the point.
McDonald’s ok for a bit. When you need something and you need it quickly, it’s there. It’s not the best source of nutrition, but sometimes we all have to make sacrifices to get through the day. It’s why watching a live blog of an Apple event is palatable. It’s all basic, short bits of information that keep you up to date. You don’t have to think about what your putting in your mouth brain.
But there’s only so much you can actually digest quickly. This is why live tweeting educational speeches and events gets into the realm of disgusting for me. People are absorbing a lot information quickly and then turning it out without a second thought about what the greater meaning and ways it could benefit the audience.
It’s like the scene from Super Size Me, where the director and star, Morgan Spurlock, eats a Super Size Meal in fifteen minutes and immediately throws it up. Do you really think you have thought about all the implications of what you’re hearing and make it useful for your audience if your posting your notes immediately online?
That’s not to say any blogging, whether live or not live, is better. It’s all fast food in one form or another, some of it is thought out more and presented a little better. Every post in another chicken nugget of wisdom, hoping to be picked up, dusted off, and prove to be made of gold rather than separated meat. But you can take the information and find ways for it to become useful for your audience beyond just posting every single thing you learned.
What do you think? Is live blogging useful? Or is it like trying to cram a big mac and supersize fries into your mouth in 10 minutes?
Anti-Social Media