There are two problems with this new approach to sharing. The first is that this essentially equates social networking with life streaming. Facebook goes as far as to rename profiles as timelines. It assumes we want people to know everything about us, that we want our lives to be public, our lives to be lived in the public domain. But not everyone wants their activity broadcast across the web, certainly not all of their activity. Not everyone wants to be a celebrity, sacrificing privacy for slightly more attention. The functionality is, for now at least, opt in. Meaning the user has to allow Facebook permission to auto share, and in the instance of reading updates, the site must also have the functionality enabled.

However it is default behaviour that if a user does opt in, all of their friends will see these updates. And this is the second problem. It assumes that this information is interesting or relevant to other users. It equates activity with tacit approval or even recommendation. Pre-timeline behaviour was that people had to choose what and when to share. A particularly interesting article, funny video or great music track. People picked good things, acting essentially as curators of content. But now just reading an article for 30 seconds counts as a share worthy event, at least in Facebook’s eyes. Every song you listen to, even the slightly embarrassing playlists, are shared automatically. No selection, no picking and choosing, just a constant stream of unfiltered updates.

People connect on Facebook because they are (hopefully) friends. They want keep in touch and up to date with what is going on in their lives. The big events. The birthdays, the engagements, hell, sometimes even the photos from their holiday. But being a friend with someone does not mean you want to know every little update about their lives. There’s no call for Facebook connectivity in everything we do. I for one don’t wish to know when my friend reads just any article, I want to know when they read an article they find interesting, one they find worth sharing. Automatically sharing creates a stream of largely uninteresting sharing precisely because it is frictionless.

The idea that one day everything we do or interact with will have Facebook connectivity is terrifying. It conjures up images of a dystopian future where we are all reduced to our streams, updating whenever you make a purchase or go to the toilet. And nobody really wants that do they?

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Learn something new about your industry.

By taking the time to sit down regularly and write about a certain aspect of your industry you are bound to begin to learn new things. In taking the time to research you posts you’ll be opened to a whole world of other people’s thoughts.

Learn something new about yourself

I’m a firm believer that by having to actually think through what you think you know, you learn a lot more about what you actually think. By putting words down on a page you are forced to spend time examining what you believe, learning a lot about yourself in the process

Learn from being criticised

If there’s one thing that’s true of the Internet is that if you put somrthing online, someone, somewhere will disagree with it. And this is a good thing. Blogging allows you to share your ideas with the world, but it also allows the world to reply with what it thinks. It may be that your new idea stinks, or that it’s a completely new way of looking at things. But without sharing it with other people it’s difficult to know.

Demonstrate thought leadership – don’t just be a sheep

Everyone has at some point read something or heard someone say something that they disagree with, or seen something that they think they can do better. But very few people actually take the time to put their thoughts down on paper and put it out there for all to see. If you don’t want to be just another sheep it’s time to be bold, and for you speak up with your own thoughts and ideas. And all it takes is a blog.

Be part of the community

Similarly, by sharing your ideas online you become part of the community instead of one of the countless spectators. Blogging gives you a voice online, it allows you to interact with your peers from all over the world and engage with new and interesting people, all the while adding value to your network

Be transparent and authentic

Whilst blogging gives you the opportunity to belong, it can also help you stand out. What better way to demonstrate your transparency and authenticity and differentiate yourself than by sharing your thoughts or position on a certain topic, or by giving readers greater insight into your opinion.

Use your free time constructively.

Sure there are times when you want to watch your favourite TV show, or go out with friends, but there are also those days where you realise you have done nothing at all, and feel like you have wasted your free time. Why not use this time to learn something new and share it with your peers?

Create a movement

Do you have an idea that you think will change things for the better? Do you think that things should be done differently? The Internet has dramatically changed the way we share ideas. Blogging connects us to people who share similar thoughts and beliefs as us from all over the world, a platform that would be almost impossible in the offline world. Blogging is the best solution to find people who are like you and getting your movement off the ground.

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