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Everything is driven by engagement metrics. When was the last time you set out to read something or have an experience that wasn't engaging in some way? I can
by hooande 6y ago
Everything is driven by engagement metrics. When was the last time you set out to read something or have an experience that wasn't engaging in some way?
I can assure you that every good author of both fiction and non-fiction is constantly thinking "how can I make this story more engaging?" Clicks provide an empirical method to measure that, for better or worse.
Trying to improve metrics is the path of least resistance in most situations. Should all writing be more informative, thought provoking and rewarding? Yes, but that's hard af. By comparison it's pretty easy to see what got clicks and try to do that again.
- 0xcde4c3db 6y agoI'm not even a tiny bit convinced that "engagement metrics" are actually a useful measure of the experiences that people typically care about when they use the word "engaging" in a positive light. In fact, I'm not sure how much I believe that such metrics even represent an attempt at such a measure.
- skohan 6y agoYes exactly, the problem is in how engagement is measured, which is clicks/retweets/upvotes etc. These are cheap measures of whether or not you have been moved to act in the moment. If I'm engaged by a piece of content in the way that I think about the next day in the shower, no algorithm is going to measure this. I think that's part of the reason podcasts are so much more nuanced and edifying than most digital content. With podcasts, at least in my experience, the main discovery method is word-of-mouth. In order for a podcast to be discovered, it has to be interesting enough to come up in conversation.