I was somewhat amused to find that Goodreads has just about doubled its membership to 20,000,000 members in the last year. They reportedly added 4,000,000 in the last four months!
This post is not about the success of Goodreads. It about perspective and resistance to change.
When Amazon bought Goodreads, remember the wailing that GR had sold out to the Devil? Some threatened to cancel their GR memberships. A few actually did so. I wonder how many have quietly returned?
In a related story that doesn’t look like one, the guys behind Triberr invented a new button for the site a while back. You hold your cursor over the button for a flicker of a second and the post you’re about to share is approved. Soon after, someone complained about the improvement. What did these guys think they were doing? Why can’t we just click? If we don’t go back to the way things were, dogs and cats will live together!
Today? What was different and strange and scary is not so scary. New normals can be dangerous, but not all new normals are equal. Buttons and Goodreads? Not a big deal compared to all the serious problems. For instance, we live in a surveillance state yet most people shrug and ask, “Well, what can we do? Pass the mashed potatoes garnished with cynicism, helplessness and ennui.” Puts a bad book review in the right light, does it not?
I’m not saying we can’t complain. I’m saying that some problems require louder complaints, and action. The Gatling Gun of Despair is firing constantly. Choose your targets wisely.
Related articles
- Anthony Ha: Amazon-Acquired Goodreads Says It Has 20M Members, Doubling In Less Than A Year (techcrunch.com)
- The Bookworms Are Replicating: Goodreads’ Membership Has Doubled to 20M (betabeat.com)
- Social Reading: Goodreads Grows to 20 Million Users, Doubles Membership in Less Than One Year (infodocket.com)
- Goodreads Added 4 Million Members in 4 Months (the-digital-reader.com)
- Amazon book lovers social network Goodreads doubles membership to 20M in 1 year (geekwire.com)
Filed under: Amazon, publishing, Triberr, Amazon, amazon book, Amazon Kindle, Amazon.com, books, Goodreads, new normal, perspective, Triberr
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I think this blog is marvelous commentary on the inability of most of us to connect the dots in today’s extraordinary complex and diverse world. I feel like I am keeping up (barely) with FB and Linked-In … behind on Goodreads and Google + … pretty much hopeless on other social media sites. HELP!
Thanks for reading and commenting. I guess I’d suggest not to try to do too much. Unplug something. Social media fits into my lifestyle as long as I get the writing done first and to the gym regularly.
(I only do what I enjoy when it comes to social media and some days I enjoy myself too much.)