Some viewpoints
If you’re doing self-media and don’t follow trending topics, you might as well not do it at all.
We need to find our own information niche and deeply analyze the content, but the most important thing is to follow trending topics.
It’s like this: in the summer, instead of buying sweet, icy ice cream and delicious drinks, you go out for hot pot and discuss how warm down jackets are.
Even if you’re extremely knowledgeable, even if the hot pot tastes good, it lacks current relevance. Most people turn on the air conditioner when they’re hot, drink ice water when they’re thirsty, and eat watermelon when they’re hungry. At this moment, they only care about the price of the air conditioner, the price of the watermelon, and the price of the cola; they don’t care whether the clothes are warm. Therefore, trending topics are the current audience’s attention and the focus of the moment.
It’s also like this: you run a race very hard, you’re more serious and persistent than others, but if you run the wrong track, you run in the opposite direction, then the harder you try, the further you’ll go from the finish line. It’s like talking to a man about Barbie dolls, or talking to a woman about toy trains—you’re not on the same wavelength.
This is one of the reasons I specifically created an information blog.
Magazines and newspapers
Magazines and newspapers are outdated information products in the digital age.
However, in today’s era of information overload and information garbage/falsehood, I find myself nostalgic for the paid print magazines of the past.
They had beautiful layouts, focused on a specific area of content, had professional editorial review and verification, and carried the authority of the information.
Even print books, with their enormous costs and long publishing times, required rigorous review by publishers and the public before being released to the shelves. They represented the culmination of an author’s or group’s knowledge.
The table of contents alone could give you a complete understanding of a subject, allowing for systematic learning. Learning or understanding certain things is important.
However, most articles and videos nowadays are taken out of context, mixed with advertisements, and deceptive, becoming channels for capital to sell goods, inflate prices, and guide users’ thinking and information cognition. Meanwhile, truly useful content is mostly hidden or altered. Even when there are occasional sharing sessions that are interesting or practical, they lack a systematic structure; they can only be viewed, not explored in depth.
I often lament that even with money, I can’t buy useful information.
To some extent, useful information and knowledge are now in short supply, with a market but no price. One can only carefully organize, think critically, discern, and learn through personal effort.
Information blog
A picture is worth a thousand words, and a video is worth ten thousand pictures.
However, text is simpler, images are relatively complex, and videos are even more complex.
The reason I chose an information blog is because it allows me to write text, display images and videos, insert HTML charts, create mind maps, play audio, edit and organize information, and customize layouts.
Follow-up
This is intended to be a central hub for information; all subsequent information will be organized here first.
Quality is not guaranteed; this is purely for recording purposes.