Blog Memes - why?

[Iben]

So I'm fairly baffled when it comes to the vast amount of blog memes that seem to have infected so many blogs these days.

Mostly when I come across a blog which seems to consist of 90% meme rather than meaningful content I just move on. There's got to be something really good there in order for me to ignore the masses of memes pouring out my ears.

 

Am I the only one? Do you, my fellow bloggers and readers, truly like reading those memes? Do you feel content writing them?

 

Note: I'm not saying that all memes are work of the devil. Definitely not, they can be entertaining and they can contain good stuff. But it just seems like a lot of memes were more done in the spirit of "OMG I have nothing to write about, I'll just do this meme instead and list my favourite socks" rather than "Hmm, it might actually be interesting for my readers to know this and that about me", or "Here's something interesting I'd like to bring up for discussion."

More of my thoughts on the matter can be found here

 

I think it's great with memes that helps you find new followers/new blogs to follow (i.e. Follow Friday) but again, I honestly don't understand the constant need to fill out some questionnaire about yourself. I'd rather learn about the writer through what he/she has to say in more "proper" posts.. if that makes sense.

 

So yeah, any thoughts?

 

~iben

Borough of Books

Northern Tower

[Kimberly Hulst]

I hear ya.

I took part in a few memes back when I started blogging years ago, and it just seemed like isn't the whole point of a blog to learn about the person or topic in written form?  

And to say something that I am sure will be less then popular, I find the most memes are done by the gaggle of mommy bloggers who blog for ad space and need to "fill" every day and "get followers" for their blog to bring in cash. 

 

I blog and do not get paid for any of it. I blog cause I like to talk. 

[Iben]

^so much this.

[Bri Meets Books]

I like the blog memes that talk exclusively about books. Like Waiting on Wednesday helps me increase my TBR pile..which may or may not be a good thing.  I learn about more titles during that meme than I do browsing goodreads.

 

Some memes though..I just don't understand. They'd be better as discussion posts. 

[Ashley Wiederhold]

I agree. Some of the blogs that I've seen are almost completely done in memes and they really aren't that interesting. Sure, I want followers, too, but I want followers who are interested in my ideas and not just fulfilling their obligation to follow others who use the same memes that they do. I think, though, that if used correctly, memes can bring attention to things that people don't really pay attention to. I've reviewed both a short story and a poem on my blog recently and these posts didn't get near the amount of traffic that my more vague ramblings did. If they were part of a meme, though, I'm sure they would have fared much better and you would see an increase in bloggers breaking out their poetry and short story collections.

 

[Enbrethiliel]

+JMJ+

 

Ashley, your response reminds me of a meme I used to join that was just for short story reviews. The author discontinued it after several months because it wasn't very popular. (As far as I could tell, I was the only other one linking up anything--and she would pad the linky herself with reviews she ran into, leaving slightly apologetic comments for the other bloggers: "I hope you don't mind that I linked to your review. Why don't you link up next week?" etc.)

 

That's just one example, but my general experience has been that it's difficult to find a meme that both demands thoughtful writing from participants and helps you find other blogs you'd like to read. The memes that are easy to do get scores of entries a week, but good luck finding the harder ones!

[Enbrethiliel]

+JMJ+

 

I do three memes on a fairly regular basis: Character Connection, Friday is for Fairy Tales, and Locus Focus. These require more thoughtful posts than the ones I believe you're alluding to. That's probably why they don't get a lot of participants: from what I see, the host is lucky to have two or three a week. But everything I submit for these memes counts as content and not just filler.

 

Sometimes I join one of the more popular ones like Teaser Tuesday, but I give myself an extra challenge. My first rule is that the two lines have to be "legs" that the whole book can stand on; the second is that there must be two legs on the cover as well. =P (The only time I went ahead without legs on the cover was when I wanted to show off one of my favourite writer's super-long sentences. I used only two and they looked like a medium-sized paragraph.) Other people seem to go with any teaser they please, however--and blithely break the original rule of only two sentences--so it's not always encouraging to make the rounds of the links. But I link up for the sake of linking up, not for the sake of networking, so I don't feel guilty not visiting more than a couple of other blogs.

[Jaime Huff]

 I used to join in them when I first started blogging and I thought it was THE THING to do.  It became tedious but in the end I did find new blogs to follow and new bloggers to follow me!  I got burned out very quick.

 

Last day to enter for a copy of the book Celebrating Love http://tinyurl.com/6dut5y4

[Enbrethiliel]

+JMJ+

 

A blog meme is a weekly feature hosted by one blogger that other bloggers are encouraged to take part in by doing their own posts with the same theme. Some really popular ones are "In My Mailbox", in which reviewers share all the new books they got that week, and "Teaser Tuesdays", in which participants share two random lines from their current read. Events like this can also function as hops.

 

I hope that helps, Shawn! =)

[Iben]

as my point here, that's the problem. They can be social, yes, but they seem like a lot of filler rather than proper content

[Enbrethiliel]

+JMJ+

 

Interestingly enough, the memes I named as examples are popular precisely because of the social aspect, while the memes I tend to join are like very small, select parties.

 

So for me, the point of memes is to have interesting content that you can be sure at least one person (the host) will read and leave a meaningful comment under. But I'm obviously in the minority! =P

[Kathy Maxwell]

I like meme posts when the blogger actually talks about the books they "meme" about.  It's a good way to discover new books and authors.  But, I agree that blogs almost exclusively devoted to memes are usually not that interesting!

[Heather Lindskold]

The only meme I consistently do on my blog is one I started called "Breakfast & Books" about the weekly date my husband and I go on to have breakfast and go book shopping.  Every now and then I will participate in a Top Ten Tuesday, but only when I really have something to say about that week's topic (in fact, I've only participated in one so far).  I'm with you.  When a blog is full of memes, but no reviews, I tend to move on.  When I read a book blog, I'm looking for book suggestions and meaningful content.  Memes are ok, but too many of them get really annoying.