In 1975, the Academy of Management Journal published an article that has since become a business classic. The basic premise of Steve Kerr’s “On the folly of rewarding A, while hoping for B” is both obvious and profound: People tend to engage in behavior that is rewarded yet most reward systems reward the types of behavior that is trying to be discouraged, while the behavior desired is not being rewarded at all.
Kerr provides numerous examples from activities and fields such as war, business, medicine, government, and the academy. While all are applicable, one of most relevant for Christian bloggers is the reward system in sports:
Most coaches disdain to discuss individual accomplishments, preferring to speak of teamwork, proper attitude, and one-for-all spirit. Usually, however, rewards are distributed according to individual performance. The college basketball player who passes the ball to teammates instead of shooting will not compile impressive scoring statistics and is less likely to be drafted by the pros. The ballplayer who hits to right field to advance the runners will win neither the batting nor home run titles, and will be offered smaller raises. It therefore is rational for players to think of themselves first, and the team second.
The two primary means of “rewarding” the work of bloggers are site traffic and linkage. The question then becomes what type of behavior do we hope for and what we are currently rewarding.
We hope for. . . community But we often reward ... individuality
Last year I sent an email to a handful of veteran evangelical bloggers proposing that we combine forces and create one group blog, using the URL of the site that at the time had the most links/traffic (Ed. Note -- insert charges of initiating a self-serving egomaniacal power play here). As could be expected, the idea wasn’t warmly received. Indeed, the various reasons for rejecting the change were quite convincing. Even though I had brought up the idea, I was admittedly glad that it was rejected as being unnecessarily radical.
Still, as one of the bloggers said, “…we need to maximize our influence for the cause of Christ and I think we ought to keep exploring ways to do this.” The problem, I suspect, lies as much the tendencies of the readers (e.g., I’d read Blogger A but I can’t stand Blogger B) as it does with us bloggers. How can we change this reliance on the individual over the communal?
We hope for. . . eternal perspective But we often reward ... focus on the trivial and ephermeral
Almost every blog has an archive listed by date and category but the average blog reader will never take advantage of this resource. Why? Because we assume that anything that was written in the past (i.e., last month) will be of little relevance today. We accept the absurd notion that the latest news is more necessary for understanding our times than the past.
But, to paraphrase the historian Arnold Toynbee, the blogger trying to understand the present is like the man with his nose pressed against the mirror trying to see his whole body.
This is not to suggest that blogging should never be timely or focused on the latest news. But how can we provide an eternal perspective while keeping our noses pressed against the mirror of current events? Why do we not reward posts that attempt to address eternally important issues?
We hope for. . . wisdom But we often reward ... foolishness
I don’t want to imply that light-hearted, even trivial blogging efforts are entirely unworthy. But those of us who spend an inordinate amount of time with this medium invariably want to believe that we are not merely wasting our time. (If I wanted to kill time on the computer I wouldn’t be blogging; I’d be playing The Sims.)
How then do we blog about serious matters? What would King Solomon write about if he were a blogger? What would he do differently? How can we, as bloggers, model that commitment to wisdom? How, in other words, do we create a reward system that prevents the concept of wisdom from vanishing altogether from this medium?
We hope for. . . depth and breadth of interest But we often reward ... shallowness and narrowness of concern
As Catholic blogger Teresa recently wrote at The Crockery: “Yeah, I admit, I don't really read Protestant blogs that much. …But who can blame me? Those Evangelical bloggers so seldom talk about anything of interest to me. They talk about their own pastors, and their own church problems, and their own theological nitpicking.”
While these topics have their place in blogging, why is it that we spend so much time matters that are only of interest to our particular “holy huddles?” If we can’t even get Christians from other traditions to read our blogs then how then can we reach the world outside the Church?
We hope for. . . unity But we often reward ... division
This can is empirically testable (at least in theory). Measure the links and site traffic for posts that bring division and compare them to those that foster unity. You don’t have to be a mathematician to see that when it comes to Christian blogging, division and subtraction are almost always preferred to multiplication and addition.
We hope for. . . faith, hope, and love But we often reward ... doubt, pessimism, and uncharitableness
In a recent post (Royal Rumble in Godblogdom) I attempted to mock our current reward system by including a number of the behaviors that Godbloggers should discourage -- a concern with individual gain of traffic and links, focusing on a trivial topic of concern only to other Christian bloggers, purposefully being divisive and uncharitable, etc. The results were just what I expected: it was one of the most-linked, most read posts I’ve had all year.
Now this is not meant to shame those who read and/or linked to the post. I hope that they valued it as a light-hearted, satirical swipe at problems that are plaguing our corner of the blogosphere. But when this post—sloppily tossed off in a half-hour of typing—receives more attention than more serious posts that I spend hours researching and crafting, it definitely makes me wonder if I’m not wasting my time.
Bloggers, and the audience who read them, have access to one of the most powerful and transformative technologies in the history of mankind. We not only have access to information that was unavailable to Augustine, John Calvin, John Wesley, Jonathan Edwards, and Francis Schaeffer, but we possess the ability to communicate instantly with people across the globe. Are we going to squander this profound tool? When our Creator asks how we used this gift, how are we going to explain that we hoped for B but rewarded A?
Note: More of the "How to Blog" and the "Notes on Blogging" series can be found at this index.
Joe:
Good application, good insights, and evidence of wisdom. I wonder, though, how many comments this will generate compared to "Rumble": my cynicism - uh, no, I mean - experience predicts less.
I agree with what you say but am afraid it will fall on - what? - deaf eyes(?). Blogs appeal to the flesh so subtly, hidden behind a mask of pseudo-ministry and "defending the faith."
I don't think it has to be either/or Joe. Mostly I blog "seriously" but I do like to let my hair down under my helmet once every so often - especially near the end of a week.
I think the "reward" structure of blogging has a lot of parallels to that of running a "Seeker friendly" church. Sometimes the things that draw traffic (foot or electronic) are vastly different from those that keep people as long-term members of the community.
However, the most successful churches (and the best blogs) seem to mix it up. I'd agree with Catez - it's not an either/or. Some messages are best when leavened with humor/satire/outright weirdness. And sometimes you've just gotta laugh.
The key, however, is to keep them coming back. If they don't, you can't influence them. Whether it's in a church, a small group, or a blog, my biggest periods of personal growth seems to come when I am in a community for the long run. I though about it a while back and realized that even a small blog like mine has the equivalent of a large size class stopping by every day of the week for the last year. So, it's a pretty good way to influence the world (or at least a small corner of it).
However, you dwarf this,Joe. You've done a wonderful job of pulling the mix off. I've seen greater diversity and (with the exception of the occasional troll) more civility among the community of your readership than almost any other blog out there. You have everyone from hard-core fundamentalists to card-carrying atheists. And yet, they keep coming back (and back, and back).
Amazing. You have more than a few who pray for you and your ministry on a regular basis. Keep up the good work.
Hear, hear!
There's a strong connection, Joe, between your points on timelessness and wisdom. What I face in my blogging is a temptation to be purely reactive--to let my agenda be dominated by responding to what I see in the press or other blogs. The problem with that is that it locks me into a) what other people are thinking about and b) a very immediate, short-range type of thinking.
I don't think that type of blogging is all wrong or always wrong, not at all. But unless one's blog is specifically set up to be a current events site, it's very short-sighted. It does not promote growth in wisdom.
I've found my best corrective to that is to read the Bible and blog on it, to read good books and blog on them, and to pull my head out of the comments discussions once in a while and just think about something else for a while.
Also--about fostering dissent and disunity--it's possible to disagree charitably and respectfully. Disagreement is inevitable if you host comments and don't delete every one that dissents. We could be more polite about it than some people are. As for those who purposely stir up hot disagreement among Biblical Christians, I simply shun those sites. They make me very angry at times, but always grieved.
Wow...great article! Some bloggers really enjoy seeing themselves mentioned,popularity hopefully increasing, site meters rising, and can track down even obscure blogs that might mention their names. I chuckle at the name dropping and the inclusion in certain blogging groups...many bloggers purpose that their blogs are about the glory of God and not themselves, but the struggle with the flesh is pronounced in the blog world. We all fall into that trap I think. I wonder how many comments you will get on this particular subject.
Maybe I'm naive, but I still think substantive and interesting can go together.
Thanks for this post! Those of us novice bloggers deserately need to read and apply articles like this. There's not much advice out there for how best to use this "profound tool", so typically we learn by example. and many examples are, as you've pointed out, not good.
I think the responsibility that comes with blogging needs to be emphasized more. It's easy, especially for college students like myself, to think that because it is so simple to make one's thoughts accessible to the world, one should do so freely and without restraint. We (and here i include all bloggers, even the "big names") need to be reminded that this is a serious medium, and we are as responsible for our words and actions on the blogosphere as we are in daily life.
Really great post, Joe. I'd only quibble that maybe the problem is focusing on site traffic and links as the "reward" of the blogger. Basically, what you're saying is that the popular blogger is the successful blogger. But who sells more books: Dan Brown, or Donald Carson? Carson writes learned tomes that in commercial terms would be a disaster; the only reason he gets published at all is that academic publishers aren't looking for the same kind of "success" as popular book publishers.
Same thing with blogs. What gets a lot of site traffic and links is not always what makes a good blog post ("good" being defined as what contributes to your stated goals in this post). That's not a matter of someone deciding what to reward; it's a matter of what human beings, being what we are, do. An irrefutable argument (if such a thing were possible) on a subject of eternal consequence would probably not be linked to very much (and therefore would receive less traffic). The reason is that people who oppose it wouldn't want to draw attention to it, and even people who agree with it would feel that they have nothing more to contribute. It's when people want to argue with or add to your argument that you get links, or even responses. More than once I've read a post where I thought, Wow, I'd like to contribute...but they've really said it all.
Thank you for raising these important issues, Joe. I've noticed in the blogosphere as well as in other online forums that the subject of wisdom isn't a great conversation starter. Oddly enough, though it's clearly a biblically commended virtue, questions about how it can be fostered are frequently met with silence, leading me to wonder whether this is primarily due to ignorance or disinterest.
Your question about what Solomon would blog (assuming that he would) raised another in my mind. How frequently would he blog? A recurring theme in Proverbs is that wisdom is displayed by deliberation and verbal restraint. On the contrary, folly expresses itself impulsively, with little or no thought. In fact, there is, according to Solomon, more hope for a fool than for one hasty with his words (Prov. 29:20). Where there are many words, transgression is nearby (Prov. 10:19).
Because keeping a steady flow of current posts is one of the things the blogosphere rewards, there is an enduring temptation to be quick to post(for the sake of building and/or maintaining readership). We may succomb to the pressure to say something when in actuality, we have nothing beneficial to offer or what we do, is in need of further cogitation before being aired. When this happens, links and traffic become a type of "fool's gold," enticing us to greater folly. Of course, there are the exceptions to the rule (and I count you among them) who are able to make wise contributions on a regular basis but most of us are not there.
Reflection is a necessary ingredient for cultivating wisdom and given the ephemeral nature of the Internet, I think a valid question to consider is how conducive or distracting is the medium for the formation of wisdom? This is one with which I am continually wrestling.
Because often they don't know jack about anything else?
Never be timid about putting forward an uninformed opinion.
OK, Joe, ya got me; guilty as charged.
But you have to admit, your "Royal Rumble" was good. It was funny. It wasn’t just serious-funny, it was funny-funny, and there were many layers of both kinds of funny involved. So, the response was in kind.
You are highly respected in the blogosphere, Joe, and not all of that respect is due to your star quality. Let’s face it, you’re good. You’ve got the goods; you’ve got the real stuff, the right stuff. (You know what I’m saying.)
Blogging is a serious endeavour for most of us. So we appreciate a little humor to lighten things up. But, like any other institution, blogging has its modus operandi, its governing rules and principles which derive from the created order of things as well as social and cultural norms – the natural and cultural law of blogging, if you will. However, being a human invention, it will naturally be subject to all that characterizes humanity, both good and bad.
As bloggers, we can use those things, both the good and the bad, to good purpose, or we can exploit them. Sometimes this line is hard to draw, and, as it is with any other human undertaking, the debate as to where the line is or should be will continue until the end of the world as we know it. Enterprise without opportunism is the ideal, I suppose. The blog is a commodity, whether we like it or not. Perhaps advertising and promotion, as well as rewards in terms of popularity, have a place in blogging if they arise from generosity of spirit. It’s a matter of where the heart is.
Speaking of – do even the best, most upstanding, most wise and most gracious Christian bloggers have completely pure motives for blogging, every time they blog? I can’t speak for them personally, but, knowing that they are human, and that no human is completely pure, I would guess that the answer is “no.” Regardless, they still have much of great value to offer (meaning, God uses them), and can be forgiven or rebuked in love should that ever be necessary.
To answer your question, “How...do we create a reward system that prevents the concept of wisdom from vanishing altogether from this medium?” I don’t think we can, except by being involved with those bloggers who exhibit wisdom and other Christian traits and not just with those who offer a product we especially like or are in need of (unless those two coincide :-) ).
Perhaps the Christian blogger's true reward cannot be found in this world.
I think that there are Protestant blogs out there that would satisfy Teresa’s quest, but they are hard to find because they are like needles in a haystack and have little notoriety.
PS Yes, I wrote this, not my husband, but I promise I was wearing my wig.
I believe you need to look at the fundamentals of why people blog. It starts with "I have an idea": I want to share it, I air it, I hope some people care (about) it. Blogging is in essence selfish, yet by taking the time to publish we share of ourselves. Many bloggers do not want to join in a group blog because they typically do not want to neglect their "home" blog nor do they have the time to contribute to another site.
Transitory content is rewarded due to the nature of the beast. The Internet is news at hyperspeed, and if you're a day late on posting something, more times than not you probably should not bother.
So why continue blogging if you don't happen to have an above average writing talent and just get a few visitors to your site? Some do drop out, while others slog along. I suppose having "... access to one of the most powerful and transformative technologies in the history of mankind" has an appeal.
Rewards should not be measured so much by the hitmeters/link-love/noteriety, but rather the relationships you can develop and enjoy. Jesus spent most of His ministry focused on relationships before He made His sacrifice.
May all of our blogs glorify His name to the best of our abilities.
Catez I don't think it has to be either/or Joe. Mostly I blog "seriously" but I do like to let my hair down under my helmet once every so often - especially near the end of a week.
Oh, I agree. I don’t think it is “either/or” either. I just think that the trivial or critical posts that we write tend to gain more attention than the substantial and positive ones we produce.
Unknownprofessor I think the "reward" structure of blogging has a lot of parallels to that of running a "Seeker friendly" church. Sometimes the things that draw traffic (foot or electronic) are vastly different from those that keep people as long-term members of the community.
That’s a good analogy. Perhaps we need the “seeker friendly” megablogs to attract new people and smaller blogs to shepherd them in community.
I though about it a while back and realized that even a small blog like mine has the equivalent of a large size class stopping by every day of the week for the last year. So, it's a pretty good way to influence the world (or at least a small corner of it).
I completely agree. I think every blogger that can attract 30-100 regular readers should consider themselves to be wildly successful. But since there are so many people that we aren’t reaching, we probably need to either have more Christians start blogging or each of us needs to add a few more people to our “classrooms.”
You have everyone from hard-core fundamentalists to card-carrying atheists. And yet, they keep coming back (and back, and back).
I have been fortunate to have some great commenters. Whenever I forget how civil and intelligent they are I just go read the threads at World magazine’s blog.
You have more than a few who pray for you and your ministry on a regular basis.
Thank you. I really appreciate you saying that.
Tom I don't think that type of blogging is all wrong or always wrong, not at all. But unless one's blog is specifically set up to be a current events site, it's very short-sighted.
That’s a great point and something that I should have clarified. I definitely think that most of us are “called” to blog about current events sometimes and a few bloggers should make it their primary focus. I also think there is a great need for Christian bloggers who don’t focus on “religious” topics at all, but concentrate on producing a great satire blog (Scrappleface) or write about technology (Gadgetopia). But those of us who aren’t called to be a current events site should learn how to be what we are called to be (whatever that might be).
Meg We (and here i include all bloggers, even the "big names") need to be reminded that this is a serious medium, and we are as responsible for our words and actions on the blogosphere as we are in daily life.
Absolutely. I think my generation (Gen-Xers) and the ones that came before me saw this medium as a place to be semi-anonymous (and therefore semi-autonomous). The younger groups, though, are growing up with this medium and freely incorporate electronic communications into their day-to-day lives. This means that they don’t have the same illusions that older people tend to have (“I can speak my mind since nobody I know will ever read this…”). Hopefully, they will be able to provide an example for us all on how to blog responsibly.
Keith I'd only quibble that maybe the problem is focusing on site traffic and links as the "reward" of the blogger. Basically, what you're saying is that the popular blogger is the successful blogger.
Well, yes and no. Site traffic and links are simply the easiest way to measure impact, influence, and “mindshare” (people’s attention). A blogger could be “successful” even if they only have a handful of dedicated readers. But the question is why, if the person is able to attract such an audience, that they are not being touted by other bloggers? Now one reason is that the subject matter that they choose to blog about is of limited interest. One of my favorite blogs is prosthesis. Yet because of the subject matter he choose to write about, Macht isn’t likely to attract a large mainstream audience. I’d still consider it a “success.”
But if a blog is of high quality and should be of interest to others, then perhaps we should do more to promote it, rather than just assuming that everyone already knows about it.
But who sells more books: Dan Brown, or Donald Carson? Carson writes learned tomes that in commercial terms would be a disaster; the only reason he gets published at all is that academic publishers aren't looking for the same kind of "success" as popular book publishers.
Ahh, but I think you’re comparing apples to oranges. Dan Brown may sell more books than Dr. Carson. But Carson sells more books than many other Christian authors. In fact, I think we should be striving to do what Carson does: reaching the biggest possible audience we can by producing quality work.
It's when people want to argue with or add to your argument that you get links, or even responses. More than once I've read a post where I thought, Wow, I'd like to contribute...but they've really said it all.
That’s true, but I think it highlights one of the problems we have (and that I am particularly guilty of). If we can’t add anything, we just ignore it. But what about our readers who might have found it worthy but who will never hear about it? I think we take for granted sometime how much overlap we have in readership.
Keith Plummer We may succomb to the pressure to say something when in actuality, we have nothing beneficial to offer or what we do, is in need of further cogitation before being aired.
I plead guilty to this charge. I can’t count how many times I’ve sat down at my computer and thought “I have absolutely nothing to say.” Yet I still crank something out because I fear that if I don’t write every day that when I do have something to say I won’t have any readers left to hear it.
Patrick Never be timid about putting forward an uninformed opinion.
Well, that’s not one I have to worry about. I don’t think I could ever be accused of being too timid to put forward an uninformed opinion. ; )
Joe,
The community is a collection of individuals and is rewarded through individuality, as God raises up individuals to serve his purpose. How can a "community" of like-minded sinners correct itself as a community? That's akin to design by committee. The Apostle Paul was one man, but he was used by God to confront the judaizers, gnostics, hypocrites and all manner of community-entrenched heretics, and the community was blessed as proper doctrine was embraced and took root. The list of individuals goes on and on. Where would we be without Martin Luther? Therefore, the notion of rewarding individuality over community is not folly. We should be rewarding "A" and hoping for more "A"! Those men deserve their place in history. Perhaps God will one day raise up a blogger for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness (2 Tim 4:16).
Well, just think, if you had a TV show and could lift 3000 pounds you could be Pat Robertson!
Thanks for that. I needed to hear that. There's been a circle that I've stuck in where I seem to be the only one that comes up with something substantive - this helps to spur me on.
Hmmm...this must explain why my traffic is so mediocre. It must be because I am such a good team player!
Joe,
As a Ker (one 'r') and one of the most foolish people I know, I only wish to say that part of what makes so many Christian blogs funny is that they are trying so hard to be taken seriously.
Thanks for a well thought-out post. As a new blogger I'm still figuring out what this is all about but I personally feel that my goal should be to think long, write well, and not sweat the traffic too much. I can't help suffering hitnosis however.
Joe
Solid post.
Indeed, we all need to heed Solomon's advice:
Thanks.
Grace be with you all
Gordon
PD: Overnight, looks like no one party won a majority in the election here.
Thanks for doing this. I've been wondering if blogging isn't a waste of time, and I wouldn't be better off playing Sudoku. I still wonder.
One thing I've tried to do this year is to comment on every post I've actually read, as a way of rewarding, even if only to say "good job."
Thanks again.
One thought on why the longer and/or more substantive posts don't get the consistent traffic of lighter posts:
When I want substantive, I tend to curl up with a book and devote time to it. I limit my computer time on purpose and so I don't have time nor the desire to spend hours slogging through substantive blog after blog after blog; the cacophony of "warring" opinions and varied voices is too much for me to take in and it tends to echo about my head all day. I prefer to read shorter and a greater variety of blog posts and use books for my substantive reading.
This is, of course, a personal preference. I am only mentioning it because there might be others with a similar method.
So yes, the lighter/fluffier posts have their place in my world. I do know that if I post something "heavy" I tend to weigh it out the next few days of posting with something lighter. This is the equivalent of not writing huge chunks of unbroken text and instead using paragraphs to break up ideas and make a post more digestable - I do it as a courtesy to my regular readers.
Julie, I am so with you on this!
Added to that is the sheer number of blogs out there. Many of them are quite good, but to be honest, I simply don't have the time/energy to keep up with ANY of them regularly. "Serious" posts, in particular, require a thoughtful mind to receive them fully, and when I'm groggy on a Saturday morning, I'm not likely to be at my best mentally. ;)
It's like going to the library. We go weekly, and I often wind up with ten books or more. This isn't because I'm planning to read all ten; it's because I don't want to spend hours and hours browsing, so I select books based on author (if I'm lucky) or title, subject and cover design and perhaps what's written on the back or the endflaps of the dust jacket. With such a cursory review, I know I'll wind up with some duds - but there's a good chance that if I take a broad selection, I'll also get some gems.
I read blogs in much the same way. Those that intrigue me get added to my favorites list, and if I get a chance I may scroll back through, but it's certainly no guarantee.
I wonder - how does ANYONE keep up with all of this?!
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