Things I’m Thankful For

Guys, seeing as it is the season for expressing gratitude for life’s wondrous bounty, I just wanted to take a moment to note the many things I appreciate about–no, just kidding. I wanted to talk about Twitter! Well, not just Twitter; more like short-form blogging etiquette. Specifically, the practice of linking to something without providing any context. For example, tweeting something like:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DpA2tMrQ4RU I SIMPLY CANNOT.

Guys, this has to stop. My time is not terribly valuable but in the course of any given day I am bombarded with hundreds of opportunities to click on links. If I clicked on every link I saw on blogs, Twitter, Facebook, and email, I would get even less done. So do me a favor and give me a hint about whether I should spend my 20 seconds on your link or on playing Skifree (see how I did that?).

Now, there are two exceptions to this, and as far as I’m concerned you need to satisfy both of these exceptions simultaneously:

1. If I trust you implicitly to only use this linking method for sites that I am absolutely sure to value; and
2. If you only omit the context for links in situations where there is dramatic, rhetorical, and/or comedic benefit to my being surprised by the link’s identity.

Note that (1) is a condition you are unlikely to meet with respect to most readers/followers, who may like you but probably wouldn’t even stake their Starbucks money on your abilities as an internet curator. And even if you’re arrogant enough to believe that most people think you’re great^*, you still need to actually be great, or at least adequate, at linking with nuance and wit. This means you’ll have to know how to recognize and wield irony well. If you’re like most of the people in the world, this is not your strong suit. So just go ahead and tell me what you’re linking to, so I don’t have to write a stupid blog post about it while fighting the urge to pepper said blog post with examples of the behavior I am decrying.

^* Note: of course you are arrogant enough to believe that most people think you’re great–we all think that. But, to be honest, you’re probably just okay.