20 October 2010

Numbers

I don't pay attention to my readership stats at all. In fact, it makes me uncomfortable to go look most of the time. For me, it just gives me a stomachache.

((Don't know what I'm talking about? Go to Google Analytics and register your blog & it will give you readership stats, if you're into that sort of thing. ))

Anyway, I worry if the number drops. I worry if the number increases. I feel self-inflicted pressure. Gah!!!!!

The same with Twitter followers. I avoid making eye-contact with that number. Not that the number is huge or that I am ungrateful with the followers of the random & occasional tweets that I do post.

The same but different with Facebook friends. I have No Idea how many friends I have. The amount of friends doesn't reflect who I am or what I am about. There isn't the pressure there because it's People I Know versus People To Please.

For instance, someone unfriended me and I didn't immediately notice. I was showing Kevin something and tah-dah, the person had disappeared! *shrug* It was someone that I was no longer close with and apparently wishes me dead. So clearly, a tidy resolution.

There was an article in the New York Times that talks about Unfriending that is well worth reading if you have the time: Defriended, not De Emoted. Unfriending has become a new phenomenon that everyone has probably experienced.

I prefer what my BFF K refers to as The Ostrich Method: I just really don't want to know. I am thankful for all the readers, be it regulars or lurkers or one night stands. (shush, you know what I mean)

Do you wonder/worry/obsess about how reads your stuff?

4 comments:

grey ghost said...

About how,no.About who or how many,often. :)

creative kerfuffle said...

when i first started blogging i was OBSESSED w/ my stats. not that i'd write to get them up, but i looked at them several times a day to find out how many people were reading vs. commenting, etc. i had a counter on the blog. i took it down in one of the many renovations. i did discover by accident that blogger has a stat page and i looked at it only because it told you what word searches brought people to your blog. i found that interesting.

fb--i have been unfriended w/out having a clue for awhile and still not knowing why i was unfriended. i also have....::cough cough::: unfriended people w/out warning. i unfriended most of my fringe people. in past lives we were acquaintances at best (some job related) and they either never got on fb, never posted or never commented so i zapped them.

the older i get the more i learn about friendships, both online and off and i've come to believe that cliche thing about some people come into your life for a season and some for a reason.

QueenoftheFall said...

I, too, was obsessed with my numbers when I first started blogging. I'd actually feel sad if I posted something and not many people looked at it. But, I'm letting go...
I still check the numbers, but mostly in a "well, hey, look at that, someone actually reads this thing" kinda way. :-)
I did notice someone unfollowed me on Twitter. I was a little sad, but since I don't even know who it was, why should i care?

Bethany said...

I used to pay pretty close attention to it-- now I don't look often, but every once in a while. It's easy to get obsessed with the numbers!