Bookish Musings is a feature here at Beautiful Bookish Butterflies that allows one of us to share our thoughts and opinions, talk and discuss things happening in the book and blogging community or share a personal book related issue we have. Today, Amanda is talking about memes and features and if there's such a thing as having too many everywhere? Are we drowning in a sea of un-originality? Will we survive? Find out..
Quick little game before we get started: say that title out loud 5x faster than usual 5 times and let me known if you managed it in the comments below because I think that's a cracker of a tongue twister. I am stupidly proud of myself..
Anyway, back to the topic at hand, memes. We've all seen them around the blogsphere; some are big and have been around for a few years, like Top Ten Tuesday and Stacking the Shelves, others have been created more recently, not to mention that bloggers create their own memes all the time, like my Five Friday Favourites, A Rant: Book Covers, Who Wore It Better's with Nitzan and In Bed With Badger's, in fact, here's a directory of near enough all the memes people can participate in, just in case you were looking for something new to get involved with. Memes are not something new in the blogging community, but it's come to my attention that as the number of memes increase, the less originality there is in the community, and there's nothing that makes one blog stand out from another, and it got me thinking, is there a case of too memes too many?
Now I'm not about the scrutinise memes and features, we all know I take part in and have created my own, so I'm hardly about to say 'no more memes', but I know that I personally like for there to be a balance on blogs between reviews, memes and other posts like discussions or other personal interests, much like I have, so what do I think about the blogs that have a meme near enough every single day? I personally think a meme a day every day is a little too much..
Waiting on Wednesday and Five Friday Favourites are just things you can take part in to drum up some audience or to just have some fun in my opinion, they to me aren't the blog posts that keep me coming back to a blog. Waiting on Wednesdays take all but 10 minutes at most to create, Five Friday Favourites can be done in 15, even my Who Wore It Betters could be achieved in under 30 minutes if I chose to, so when I see a blog jam packed full of them, I tend to bounce off and go stalk someone else; I'd rather spend my time on blogs with a balance and less often but better quality posts than I would on someone who's probably spent an hour on a whole weeks worth of posts. I welcome originality and enjoy seeing new features and creations specifically tailored to people's blogs instead of the popular generic ones that clog up my feeds. Give me photography features, give me your own soundtrack to a book, give me your own designs on covers, give me your perfect cast for a book-to-movie creation, give me something I haven't seen on 20 other blogs before now. Be yourself and give me something other than memes to look at, because right now, I feel like I'm drowning in a sea of memes and generic, quickly made posts and it's like I'm surrounded.
Personally, I feel like 3 should be the max a blog should have of memes, because that's basically one every two days which is enough. I do love WoW posts and TTT posts though I don't participate in either apart from WoW occasionally on my co-blog.
ReplyDeleteAwesome post, Amanda! <33
I agree, I always try to keep mine to a three memes a week at most because then I have time for reviews too. Top Ten Tuesday I really do enjoy, it's one of the big and best ones around I think :)
DeleteI like memes, but I get bored if that's ALL a blog does. It feels unoriginal, you know? I want to get to know the blogger! And some memes are super hard to personalise (like WWW. I mean, what can you really do with that that's out of the ordinary?) TTT is my favourite because LISTS ARE AWESOME. I like Stacking the Shelves too, because it's fun to see what's being release and what's new on Netgalley and stuff. But original posts do take aaaages to write, so I get that they're not for everybody. They're my favourite to read on other blogs though.
ReplyDeleteOh Cait do you like your lists, I've seen them, you love them! I love personal things too, getting into the nitty gritty!
DeleteI love Top Ten Tuesday and Stacking the Shelves, as well as Who Wore it Better and other original memes some bloggers have. But like you, I think you CAN have too much of them. Original content FTW. I think too much of anything can get boring, really - too many reviews, too many guest posts, too many memes...everything in moderation :)
ReplyDeleteI completely agree, you need a nice balance for me to like you, it's like with all things, give me some wheat and bread (reviews) and some good for you veg (discussions and memes) but give me some sweet dessert too (something surprising!)
DeleteI feel like I am on the opposite side of the post. I actually like a blog with lots of memes and discussions. Also, I'm just not a huge fan of reviewing books - it is my least favorite thing to do. However, I can see your point, and I would like to see some fresh memes pop up!
ReplyDeleteI can see why you dislike reviewing books. Sometimes it's hard to critic a book, but also, you don't write them and then they pile up and it's stressful and then you don't want to review them anymore, it can become, busy and overwhelming. Fresh memes for sure!
DeleteToo many memes is.. let's say someone posts 3 times a week and 2 of their posts are memes, that would be too much for me. I like to have some more other content and more balance.
ReplyDeleteI sometimes attend Top ten tuesday. I used to do Waiting on Wednesday, but I wasn't feeling it anymore so I incorporated that somewhat in my own feature (Fairytale news). Oh yeah and I used to do Feature & follow at the start of my blog to get myself more out there, but I don't really need that anymore. Showcase Sunday slowly made it's way for my Monthly recap, because it feels better to have them all together in one big post.
Those are the memes I used to like, now I only hop around on TTT lists, because I love lists. The thing with memes like waiting on Wednesday is that the comments are so generic. What else then 'I also can't wait for this book!' can people say?
I think with time, many bloggers take inspiration from the memes they used to take part in an incorporate them into something different, either merge some, separate some, change them, rename them, and I think it's good because it adds variety around the community. TTT is one I do like, lists and lists and lists!
DeleteI don't really care how many memes people do on their blog....because it's their blog. I think memes are a nice break between reviews. I like looking at book hauls, TTT, WOW, Swoon Thursdays, etc. If I feel a blogger has too many memes, I just don't click on it on my feed. Problem solved!
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, that title is hard to say 5 times :)
I guess that's a point, I do find myself not clicking them for the same reason as you, just not interested, so you make a good point Nereyda. I'm pretty proud of that title actually, shame on me..
DeletePersonally, I don't like memes at all. I skip every single meme post. I know there's an exception to every rule, but memes tend to make people lazy. For example, loads of people make a WoW post and just include a book cover and synopsis and that's it. No comment, no thoughts, just a copy and paste of book info. Well that's boring.
ReplyDeleteAfter a while I just got fed up and stopped reading memes completely. Obviously people can blog however they want.. But memes don't interest me personally. If people take the time to make all their posts original, I associate that blog with words like: high quality, a lot of effort, no filler posts. And that's what makes it a blog I want to read.
I find that boring as well Ashley, if I do take part, it's because they're books I really want to get the message out about and I ALWAYS put why I'm interested and waiting, it's a vital part of the post I think. You have high expectations Ashley, I like it!
DeleteI never really read memes, apart from Top Ten Tuesday because the topic changes every week. And even then, it's only interesting when a blogger explains WHY they chose those books, instead of just listing ten books. But mostly, they don't interest me and I'm not likely to follow a blog that posts loads of them each week :(
ReplyDeleteI agree Rinn, just putting them there and saying very little else is, well, boring really and a shame.
DeleteI love memes. I don't do them all and I don't read them all either. I'm more likely to read one if I'm participating in it, but sometimes I read ones I'm not. (TTT is one I'm likely to read even if I'm not participating that week.) Sometimes I'll do multiple memes a week, sometimes only one. This week I wouldn't have done any except I really wanted to do TTT.
ReplyDeleteI don't read blogs, I read individual posts, so I'm not likely to notice if someone is 5 memes a week or none. I was looking at someone's weekly recap post earlier and realized that she posts up to 3 times a day 5 days a week. I've been following her for months and I had no idea! I read through Bloglovin so I just read what looks interesting.
I vary too, I only do the TTT's I'm interested in and even then, it's only if I can do ten, otherwise I'll put a review there. I think it's good that you judge the post not the blogger, I've never considered it done that way, so that's really interesting, thank you Jenna! :)
DeleteI think what the memes are and what you do with them is more important than the number. Personally I only do memes if the topic jumps out at me, and as for which ones I read, it just depends on how interesting the blogger can make it, how much of themselves they can put into it.
ReplyDeletePersonally, I find WoW and Stacking the Shelves boring, so I don't do book hauls, and instead of a WoW every week I do a seasonal post featuring a few upcoming books I'm looking forward to. TTT, by comparison, can be really interesting as sort of a discussion starter, or really boring if it's literally just a list of titles (or authors or characters or whatever it is that week). But my favorites are ones like Booking Through Thursday or Thursday Thoughts, the ones that are meant to start a conversation.
I do that too, I won't do them every week because some just don't interest me that much. I like the ones that can spark some discussion or feelings, and I agree, WoW can sometimes be a little, bland, I've been considering in a future a monthly thing, maybe every so often feature the books that are coming up that I'm interested in.
DeleteI'm with you that a meme a day is just too much. A couple a week, in between reviews, discussion posts, and other original stuff? sure, that's fine. But if a blog only does memes (and promo posts) I'm so not following that blog.
ReplyDeleteThank god I'm not alone there, too many memes is just too much :)
Delete*hides* I am terrible for this... I take part in far too many memes! And now I feel terrible, haha. I feel I get so much enjoyment out of all the ones I take part in - TTT, FFF and my own Films for Thoughts on Thursday one. I do agree that they can get a bit boring though. I wish I could come up with more original posts, its just getting the time to actually do them that is hard. Or even the energy for that matter.
ReplyDeleteAww, memes aren't a bad thing though, it's just when some people do way to many and don't have other content, that's when it's too much for me really. I can understand though, time is everyones enemy! :)
DeleteLove this post! I agree with you 100% - I'm not against memes in and of themselves. I think they're a good way to get connected to the blog community have fun, but within reason. I also prefer the memes that involve a little more personality and little less just fill in the blank. I do three memes a week on my blog - Teaser Tuesday or Top off Tuesday (alternating), Life of a Blogger, and Sunday Post. Then I have three reviews a week, and a discussion post on Saturdays - I like to have a variety. Great post :) OH and I couldn't even say the title 1x fast LOL
ReplyDeleteI do think having a variety is what works best, too many reviews and not a lot else can sometimes just be too much and I can't be dealing with all of that going on. Thank you hunny, and I'm still very proud of that title :P
DeleteI so agree Terri! It's like with Five Friday Favourites, I want to know why they're your choices, what makes you think of them, what do they mean to you, I want to know people through the memes, not just see them doing it :)
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