Do you have Klout? Does it matter?

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This is my weekly installment of “writing about writing,” in which I scan the world to find websites, books and articles to help other writers. Today I discuss an article by Rebecca Newberger Goldstein in the New York Times…

When heard about Klout this week — a social media scoring system — I must confess that I raced to the website and set up a (free) account so I could quickly calculate my score.

I earned 25 (that’s out of 100) but I’m taking comfort that it takes a few days to fully add up the Linked In and Twitter contributions. With luck, maybe I’ll beat 50?

That said, I recognize it’s crazy to fret about this sort of stuff. Writer Rebecca Newberger Goldstein (pictured above) thoughtfully expresses her contrarian views about social media in a New York Times article headlined “What would Plato tweet?”

Arguing that people use social media out of an effort to make themselves “matter” more, she continues:

Our need to feel as if our lives matter is, as always, unabating. But the variations on the theistic approach no longer satisfy on the scale they once did, while cultivating justice and wisdom is as difficult as it has always been.

I particularly appreciated Newberger Goldstein’s almost-concluding thought:

Mattering — none of us more than the other — is our birthright, and we should all be treated accordingly, granted the resources that allow for our flourishing. Appreciating this ethical truth might help calm the frenzy surrounding our own personal mattering, allowing us to direct more energy toward cultivating justice and wisdom.

This article was particularly timely for me. I’ve recently started tweeting again (@pubcoach, if you’re interested) and I begrudge the time it takes in my schedule. It was much easier when I simply let my plug-in auto tweet my blog entries. Should I go back to doing that?

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