Comments on: Don’t Read This, Take a Walk in the Park

By: Browsing for researchers « A Man With A Ph.D.

Browsing for researchers « A Man With A Ph.D. — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 18:54:11 +0000

[...] it is part of my writing process. Lately, my RSS reading habits have changed. I haven’t given up on it completely, but my process has changed. My feeds are organized into folders and the folders ordered [...]

By: Raffi

Raffi — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 08:30:28 +0000

France? hehehehehe, I’m not from France, I’m from Lebanon.

Needed to state this fact

By: Raffi

Raffi — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 08:29:08 +0000

Perhaps you should have something like “Post a Comment” day, and call all your readers to write a comment about the blog, GV or whatever they have in their mind in that specific post.

You’ll see the merits of this…

Another thing is, you write too much. Another option is to post less, but have a longer one, and be more effective. I know one person who does this (Steve Pavlina).

By: Adelynne

Adelynne — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 05:33:06 +0000

Hello David! I’m one of those who read your blog and almost never writes anything in your comment box, but now I will because I wanted to tell you that I do, to a certain degree, care about what GV and RV are doing. And that I do go to some of the sites you feature to read and comment. After this post, I feel more motivated to do so. Thank you!

Adelynne from Malaysia.

By: eliz.s.

eliz.s. — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 15:20:22 +0000

I haven’t given up on my RSS readers yet . . . I’ll admit that b/c this blog and my RSS reader don’t get along, I don’t read your posts as often as I used to. I’ll stick with my RSS reader, but I have to acknowledge that there’s no way I can read every post from the blogs I subscribe to. I just don’t have time. I subscribe to Global Voices, but only really check it when I hear about events I expect will be blogged about there.

Like Elenita says, there is just too much information and noise, and it’s hard to cull through it. We choose what part of the news/world/pop culture is most important to us and we keep updated on it.

By: Alvaro

Alvaro — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 22:22:15 +0000

I come late to this post for some of the reasons you have mentioned here.
I experiment myself the stress of keeping up with the information overload and the need to keep up with the physical realities of the people around me. My RSS reader has been unattended in the last two months. And I was not aware of it until you mentioned it.

Your capacity to follow so many projects is amazing.

By: Romi

Romi — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 11:00:36 +0000

I agree with the lack of context. In some cases when commenting on a post, I feel slightly on the silly side not having anything of substance to say, other than a virtual high-five of encouragement for the poster.

Whereas I used to opt for not commenting, I now realize that even a simple message like ‘great message, thanks for sharing…’ can carry a lot of weight. Silly or not, it’s still an acknowledgement.

I’ll be quiet now and wait for your post on RV.

By: oso

oso — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 09:17:40 +0000

And, to be fair, I have an electronic stack of undread puro pedos. Though I don’t think I can use specialization as an excuse there.

By: cindylu

cindylu — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 03:48:33 +0000

Sigh. I hate going to my RSS feed. I used to read all of the LA city blogs religiously and now I check in maybe once a week.

You know, I feel guilty for not reading those posts. I skipped all of your health-related ones too. It’s like not reading articles unrelated to my research interest. We’re all so specialized.

By: oso

oso — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 14:08:25 +0000

luvmegumi,

I know that you’ve already inspired many. One step at a time.

Enzo,

A very beautiful and insightful comment. But I think this just adds to the sense of stress that many of us feel regarding information overload. A sense of guilt creeps in if we’re not informed about every instance of oppression and abuse. Today I was in the bookstore looking at books about AIDS, domestic violence, Partition, Bhopal, Tibet … and all of a sudden I had to ask myself if I’m some sort of literary masochist.

Hannah,

Thank you for being involved! I hope you continue reading and commenting on their blogs … it’s really a huge encouragement.

Romi,

Your little Canadian flag is back. I think a lot of it goes back to what Hillis writes – we’re used to commenting about very small communities. Lots of times we probably don’t comment on blogs because we don’t have enough context to feel like we’re adding value to the conversation. It certainly is a time commitment, but personally I’ve found that the gift of friendship in return is well worth it. Sometime this weekend I’ll publish a post on Rising Voices that confirms a lot of what you wrote in your comment.

Michael,

Thanks for keeping an eye on my words here – it is always nice hearing from that so-called silent majority. I think this blog actually receives quite a few comments on most posts. Which is one of the reasons I come back to write – I really enjoy threads like this one. I love being able to inspire and participate in discussions here and elsewhere. I love sitting over cups of coffee with friends and this lets me do that no matter where I am. Which is why I hope that the Rising Voices bloggers can soon experience the same joy.

elenamary,

We go back old school, huh? I agree … we all have to find our priorities. For me, that’s meant more emails to friends, more books, and less RSS feeds. Especially about technology … I can’t believe how much time a day I used to spend reading about tech … now I feel like it was such a waste of time.

Beth,

That’s just what I needed – more to read!