If you sent me an email with a link to an article or a video with no explanation on why it is relevant to me, I most likely never looked into it. I’ve discovered that unless someone can explain in a sentence or two why I should devote time and energy into something they found interesting, it is probably worthless. I used to waste my time trying to figure out why the linked content was relevant to me and then respond. Not anymore. Now I just delete the email.
I would never send someone a link to something without context. If I can’t tell you as concisely as possible on why I think something might be of value to you then I will not send it. I NEVER send links without context. It is rude.
People have sent me so much nonsense related to coffee I wrote 5 Coffee News Stories That I Never Want to Read About Again. Yet they keep sending me the very crap I list in the article.
And why do people share stories that are everywhere? I’ve had an idea for a website called “Should I Share?”. Basically you would paste in a link and it would search that story in the news and social media and determine how unique it really was and let you know if you are truly sharing something of value or if you are repeating something we are all probably aware of. Think of the countless hours wasted online by over sharing the same nonsense. A really smart version of the site could even determine if your friend had already seen the story based upon their social networks.
I am also tired of echo chamber links. I don’t care to read some 10,000 word article that agrees with my blog just because it is in the mainstream press.
And all those links to a PubMed abstracts – I’ve never read them. Delete. Delete. Delete. I’ll let the smart science bloggers read them, determine if they are good studies and then break them down in plain English. That isn’t my gig.
Lastly I need to once again bring up the you should people. Your advice sucks.
Photo by Maria Elana (since removed from Flickr)