Without a doubt, Facebook fails in upholding truthful standards. Maybe they are incapable of verifying political ads, and perhaps their approach is incomplete in labeling what is reliable, leaving open to interpretation what is. Laws need to change to hold companies like Facebook accountable for better ethics.
Blogging falls into a similar situation. Who holds bloggers accountable? Of course, readers are one way, but the same is true for Facebook and news organizations. Success is ignorance, especially with many social media platforms. Bloggers are responsible for what is occurring, too. Whether a Facebook post or a blog post, it is a sheep-like mentality. Most shift opinions on whether or how we should social distance, how to be resilient, or how the virus spread will unfold, and many changes are as fast as wind changes. Someone should track the data of the herd mentality among bloggers.
We stopped blogging here for many different reasons. One reason is simple: What more can be said at a high level? It is time to go deeper, documenting practices with real facts, real research, and demonstrated outcomes.
Leadership bloggers need to be a better example. All bloggers do.
My wish is straightforward. All bloggers should take a month off, publishing nothing. We have seen how pollution has cleared with quarantines. It would be wonderful to see less social clutter and more meaning.
By the way, if you want better news, then purchase a subscription and support journalists and news organizations. Our models are upside-down. Let’s clear out the bloggers and support news organizations again.
Added note on April 4th: I did not state this in the original post, but it is worth writing. I have heart-felt gratitude for the leadership bloggers who have supported me, and I hope my support has meant something too. Especially in the earlier blogging days, I learned a lot from so many of them. My leadership mindset changed on different topics because of what they wrote. I want to have that feeling again within the leadership blogging community. Maybe that is the point. We all need to raise our game, taking this time where life seems stalled in a virus-infected world to re-imagine our approach, deepen our thinking, and act for the betterment of as many as possible.
Photo by Matt Botsford on Unsplash
Just want you to know that I hear you… When things started to escalate with the coronavirus, I didn’t write anything because I didn’t know what to say and was focused on my family and my community. Then I found the words and after that again opted to take more time off from the blog. A blogging schedule is not a reason to put our thoughts into the world. Not sure what I’ll personally choose to do yet but agree that there’s enough hot air. In the meantime, I don’t find myself reading tons of blogs but am spending time on news sites, where I have paid subscriptions. I don’t know that I fully agree with you on this but I do agree that we need to go deeper instead of publishing to publish or for likes or for shares. Who knows what the future will bring but we’ll all find out together.
Thank you, Alli. Like you, I spend more time on news sites, especially the ones where I have a subscription. We need strong journalism, just as we need better leadership. Taking a pause will be good for me. In some ways, I may be inadvertently adopting the idea of Deep Work by Cal Newport. Time to go deeper. Thank you for all you do (and have done)! I hope you and your family are doing well through this current crisis. Take good care, Jon