There’s such a thing as too much…of everything. Too much noise. Too much food. Too much thinking. And there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that.
Except when we put it out there for everyone to see.
Social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter (and even the new kid on the block, Pinterest) thrive on the activity of their respective users. Status updates happen at a furious pace, pictures are uploaded constantly and links are resent over and over again.
There’s no problem with the quantity of what’s out there – except that there is.
Too Much of an Average Thing
With all of the stuff that is being shared online, it is getting harder and harder to find really great stuff to see, read and hear. The cream of the crop is buried so deep that it has a real problem rising to the top. The volume of what is average (at best) is keeping the quality stuff suppressed.
This needs to stop. And it starts with each and every one of us.
For example, we post at Lifehack three times a day during weekdays and once during each weekend. That’s a small amount as compared to what other sites of its kind do, and that’s okay. Why would we barrage our readers with links and stories all day when Lifehack is geared towards people who want to be more productive? It flies in the face of the site’s mandate. Sure, we engage in social media conversations, but far less than the aforementioned competitors and for good reason: our readers are busy.
I post here twice on weekdays and offer up single posts on weekend days. I’m working to improve the quality of my writing so that it warrants that amount per day, but if I find I can’t hit that mark day in and day out, then I’ll lessen the quantity so I don’t sacrifice quality. How I do that would be something to consider…but I would do it nonetheless.
Just Shelve It
Rather than ship everything that you come across – be it your own work or someone else’s you’d like to share – just shelve it for a moment. And in that moment, think about whether you actually need to ship it right now or even at all.
Curate the stuff you send out to the world. Because if you curate yourself more often, then you’ll have less of a chance of being called out, censored or culled by someone else.
Photo credit: Bart Everson (CC BY 2.0)
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