What I Learned From Not Watching The Blues Brothers
Well, here we are. The last post of this August series. And I’m setting up to deliver some hard lessons I learned. Kind of mean, huh?
The thing is, this post appeared very differently in my head when Nancy Davis first gave me the idea. She simply said, “Can you do a post about how the Blues Brothers movie ties into Social Media?” I thought it was a gimme. A fun post that I would enjoy writing and that hopefully you would enjoy reading (Ideally). A few days ago I started thinking about it. What angle exactly would I take? What facets of the movie would I use?
Then I realized a fundamental problem. Although I am entirely familiar with the concept of this film, I have never actually sat down and watched the whole thing. I don’t actually know it well enough to write the kind of post Nancy wanted.
Uhoh.
Now Here’s the Really Interesting Part
As this realization came upon me, my initial reaction was, “Dude, you can totally fake that.” I could write a post just about the song Soul Man, somehow. I could write about how they made a sequel to the movie even though one of the stars, John Belushi, was no longer alive. I could grab “memorable quotes” from Wikipedia and/or IMDB.
I could totally fake it. No one would ever have to know. Except me.
Have You Been In Those Shoes?
Granted, faking a post about The Blues Brothers is not a sin so far as I know. The tenth commandment does not read, “Thou shalt not write a post based on a movie you actually have not watched.” But still, this whole process my brain went through kind of made me wonder.
How many people would fake it? How many people, more to the point, are faking it?
I mean, let’s face it, we’re all pressed for time. Just writing a post takes time. Researching it takes more time. Editing, then re-editing, then promoting and answering comments…it’s a big commitment, right? And if you are trying to build up your expertise in a given area, you are trying to do a whole ton of other things (I hope) in addition to blogging. So, maybe you throw together a post that contains some information you’re not 100% sure of. You figure if someone calls you on it you’ll ‘fess up. If no one calls you on it, fine. Move on.
It seems harmless, right? I mean, people don’t read your blog to learn the great truths of the universe, most likely. You can’t really do anyone harm.
Right?
Except…
What your blogging can do is build your credibility. It can motivate people to look to you as a resource. A trusted resource, in fact. Maybe, based on your blog, people are following you on Twitter now. Maybe they’ll follow you wherever you go because they trust your judgment and your online knowledge. If you’re faking it in a lot of your posts, what are you really setting those folks up for? Are you misguiding them without even knowing enough to know you’re doing so? That’s kind of scary, isn’t it? Are people going to be really bummed out when they find out you’re not as trustworthy or as knowledgeable as they thought? That can sting a little for a long time.
So, I opted not to fake it
After thinking about the ramifications of pretending to know things I don’t know, I opted to stand on ground I’m comfortable on. I can’t write the post Nancy was looking for, and that kind of frustrates me. I should have thought of all of that sooner. Then again, maybe this post, even though it is not exactly fun, or even funny, is what I was meant to write right from the start.
What do you think? Is it too easy and tempting to fake it on a blog site? Can you sense when people are blowing smoke? I’d love to hear your thoughts!
Image by Bev Lloyd-Roberts. http://www.sxc.hu/profile/BeverlyLR
18 comments
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Hi Margie,
I would rather the truth than have someone humor me. It does make me wonder how many posts are faking it? There are so many things you can fake, but someone who is versed in that subject will pull your covers pretty fast.
That is the problem with faking it. You know it isn’t real, and all it takes is one person who knows their stuff to blow everything sky-high.
I have more respect for those who say “hey, I really don’t know much about this, but this what I do know” That is more authentic than faking it.
What? You don’t me to humor you…………….my jokes are funny; just ask me……………
Bill, I’m sure it’s okay if you humor her 🙂
Nancy, I agree – with authenticity being such a big buzzword in the online world, I figure I might as well stick as close to it as I can. Not sure everyone feels that way though!
Margie, Margie, Margie, you know I’m not ‘right’ don’t you? I hear all this talk about ‘faking it’ and I have all these clever quips I can come up with but none are appropriate for a family friendly site. Therefore, I guess I better drop down into semi-serious.
I took a speech class in college and our assignment was to give a 5 minute speech on a topic of our choice. A friend of mine had just done a speech for a class she had at another school, and I asked if I could ‘borrow’ it.. It was well written and was about horticulture and plants. I studied the speech and presented it in an effective, energetic way. After the speech, which the professor liked, it was opened up for questions. I didn’t have a clue and was chastised for not knowing my topic. I thought the premise was just to give an effective speech and critique the delivery. Therefore, I ‘faked’ it and was called out for it.
The point of my story being, just because you fake it, does it make it wrong or bad? If the point is to entertain only, where’s the foul?
I know exactly where you are coming from 🙂
That panicked feeling is a feeling I hate. Whether it’s because I didn’t fully do my homework or because of something else I’ve done wrong, I just hate that “OH no!!!” feeling. Some people get very motivated by it. I am sadly not one of them 🙂
Hey Margie,
You pulled it off. Even though you didn’t write the post you thought you would you still wrote one that made us think and you tied it into the subject in the best way you knew how? I was wondering, though, why didn’t you just rent the movie and watch it? I imagine it was a time issue but it makes me wonder if the movie is even available to rent. I just checked Netflix website and it’s not available for live streaming but is available on DVD in case anybody is wondering.
I am with you about not wanting to fake it when writing a post. I also expect that the blogs that I read are real and not fake, however, if it isn’t apparent I may not have a clue unless the blogger is outed.
I have to admit that I have written a few what I like to call lazy posts because I wanted to get something out quickly or was just lazy on the day I posted it. A lazy post may be as bad or worse than a fake post because it can screw your credibility so I will be much more careful going forward.
By the time I realized I couldn’t write the post, I didn’t have enough time to rent it from Netflix. I went to 3 different stores and they didn’t even have it to buy so I was just plain out of luck. Crazy in these technological times, huh?
Lazy is an interesting word…I think that could also envelope other factors that may or may not overlap with a post where someone is faking it. I’ll have to think about that. Thanks!
Never fake it. That is all. Cheers! Kaarina
Fair enough!
Great, now I’m reliving the guilt from all those book reports I wrote based on the epilogue! 8-D
Let me just say this – I admire your honesty. A good reminder that even though no one else might know, you do, and it’s my contention (now, anyway, and it only took me about 30 years to figure this out) that self-deception is just as damaging as deceiving others.
PS I have never seen that entire movie either, don’t know why.
It’s weird, isn’t it? It’s on television all of the time and I laugh whenever I see parts of it, but I’ve never actually seen the whole thing. Go figure!
Thanks for your comment!
This reminded me of the saying ‘fake it till you make it’. It may work now and again with no one the wiser but why bother when it’s easier to speak the truth. For me if I read something and walk away with no more insight than I got from reading the headline then to me they faked it. I’ll read their stuff again unless all I find is the same time after time. We all have off days and can’t be amazingly insightful all the time. Kudos for taking the challenge and still answering the question: just not as expected.
Thanks, Grace. That kind of gets back to Jim’s point. A person could be putting 100% into a post, but if it’s off in other ways it could still read like they were faking it. That’s a real bummer, but so goes the life of a blogger – or anyone in the online world, for that matter!
Hah…what a dilemma…to take the seemingly moral and ethical high ground or to kind of wing it….Well, in a perfect world, we would do our due diligence, research and come prepared…in a perfect world. Heck even in the world where we are “experts” in a particular field, we sometimes have to fake it or, my preferred route, just say we aren’t sure but we will check it out and get back to them…So, I guess, the safest bet is to not put ourselves in a position to be “busted” understanding that, if we do our homework the best we can, and we still get stumped by a question or comment, we can at least know we put effort into our topic and that, honesty is usually the best policy and allows for honest mistakes or honest lack of knowledge which, if handled correctly can enhance your credibility. I find that the statement “I don’t know but I will find out for you” actually gets a very positive response.
Claudia
Well said, Claudia. Not getting busted is a great way to put it. You don’t want your readers to feel punked!
Hi Margie,
Wow, a post about not writing a post about “The Blues Brothers”. Should have gone with “Seinfeld”, instead. It’s easier to not post about a sit-com about nothing. I think it’s easy to sense when someone is not authentic in what they’re writing about; the writing sucks. Of course it’s easy to post about something you haven’t seen. It certainly makes the research much easier. We all know people that lie when the truth is too challenging. Better to go empty then post to something you really don’t know about. Unless of course you’re blissfully ignorant…like me.
Good point – I’ll have to write a post based on Seinfeld now. Luckily for me I think I saw every episode of that show – at least twice – so I’m in good shape there 🙂
You’re right – radars to go off when you’re talking about stuff you don’t know about it. It’s easy enough to spot, and yet sometimes we do it anyway. We are silly beings, aren’t we? 🙂