I’ve probably posted too many times directly about Robert Scoble, but I was thinking today about why I continue to read him. I have sort of a love / hate relationship with Scoble’s blog, because while at times he posts very interesting stuff before other people do, his incessant enthusiasm for his employer (Microsoft) can at times verge on disgusting, and ridiculous.

But the real reason you should read Scoble transcends all of that. Robert is (most of the time) a very mature, responsible member of society, and he’s someone we all could learn from.

Today was the party for friends and family for my son’s second birthday - as well as being a father’s day celebration - hosted at my in-law’s house. During an engaging conversation about racism with my father and two of my brother -in-laws, we suddenly came to complete agreement on a single point: that we need to create more true conversation (expression and discussion of ideas) in the world, and unfortunately most people are just looking to be heard.

I can’t remember where I saw it, but I recently read about a negative aspect of the Walkman / iPod revolution: that we shut into ourselves and only listen to that which we like, over and over again. Eventually we feel empty, or “undernourished”, as we have not been willing to venture outside our comfort zone to expose ourselves to something new. This idea is true in all of our information and media consumption; if we choose only to expose ourselves to things that we like, we become undernourished.

If you were to take a random sample from Scoble’s blog, you might be inclined to think that he’s someone who is just looking to be heard. But you’d be wrong. Scoble reads as many blogs as he can find time for, and makes a point of not just reading blogs that have similar viewpoints to his; he goes out of his way to read ideas that run contrary to his own. And this is his saving grace. Blogs as a communication medium are revolutionary, but only when we use them thoughtfully and responsibly. Robert teaches us to do that.

Link: The Scobleizer