Thing #12: Do You Digg?

I've been curious about Digg, because my son said he recently spent a whole evening, into the wee hours, arguing the case for Hillary Clinton on Digg. I'd heard of Digg but didn't really know what it was.

This is fascinating in that it's sort of a virtual "town square," with people discussing the news of the day. It's also cool that articles, sites, podcasts, whatever, can rise to prominence without an editorial gatekeeper.

I'm sure that has its pluses and its minuses. As an occasional freelance writer, I know how frustrating it is to produce something really good and not have an editor accept it, for whatever reason. This is a way to get "air-time" -- at least if the crowd likes you. It's also a way for news to get to people even if they don't subscribe to, say, the New York Times. Without an editor, I suppose there's also the opportunity for unreliable junk to rise to prominence.

So this takes me back to what's sort of my "golden rule" about all forms of media: use the best tool for whatever job is at hand. Everything has its place.

I think Digg, etc. could be either time wasters or timesavers -- depends on the person and how they're using it. I could easily imagine spending way too many hours combing these sites, reading the comments, and adding to them. But it could be a timesaver to check Digg or one of the other sites once or twice a day to catch up on what's happening.