The Problem With Memes: They Clog Up Feed Readers

I actually don’t mind reading memes on the blogs I follow religiously (through email). Sometimes Top Ten Tuesday, Waiting on Wednesday, and book haul posts are interesting. I like seeing what books my friends are excited about. But what I don’t like is when I open up Feedly (my “slightly less than religious” method of following) looking for interesting posts, only to find 50 “Top Ten Tuesday” or “Waiting on Wednesday” posts and barely anything else.

The problem with memes is that they’re all the same. I may be fine with reading a few of them, but I am not interested in reading 50 posts that are all identical topics with slight content variations. This results in me avoiding Feedly all together on popular meme days like Tuesday and Wednesday.

On Tuesdays my reader looks like this:

Top Ten Tuesday Memes

And on Wednesdays…

Waiting on Wednesday memes in my feed reader

Waiting on Wednesday memes in my feed reader

Waiting on Wednesday memes in my feed reader

Waiting on Wednesday memes in my feed reader

Click images to enlarge them

Out of 4 “pages” of my reader, 15 out of the 20 results are Waiting on Wednesday posts. And keep in mind that there were more pages I didn’t screenshot! This is insane. I have no desire to read through all those. Plus, I know exactly what the topic is (a book you’re looking forward to), so if I choose to glance at it at all, I just look at the Feedly thumbnail, immediately know what book you’re “waiting on”, and then keep scrolling.

What memes do you participate in?

Do you find that your feed reading habits change on “meme days”? Do you tend to scroll past posts more quickly like I do?

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72 comments

  1. I have nothing against memes but I’ve seriously been marking them all as “read” recently. Unless they actually sound interesting. I usually like reading Stacking The Shelves though because they’re the most fun for me. I love Life of a Blogger as well! Other than that, it’s all too overwhelming to try to read them all!

    Laura Plus Books recently posted: Life of a Blogger: Plans for the Future
  2. Uhm, I think you just contradicted yourself. Either you are interested what others look forward to, or you don’t. If you are, it’s okay to just look at the pictures, and move on, especially if you don’t participate in the meme yourself, I think. There’s no need to comment on any or all of the posts. But you, receiving and reading as many ARCs as you do, could throw in your two cents if someone is looking forward to a book you’ve already read. It’s what I would do in your stead.

    I personally do alot of different memes, but aside from WoW I don’t do any of them regularly like clockwork, but only if I feel like I have something to contribute. And, if I participate, I ususally don’t look out for other posts on that day. I hop along the other blogs, like it is meant to, leave some comments (but not everywhere, sometimes I have just nothing to say, and I don’t force myself just to get another blogger hopping back), and enjoy the few more “not really countable” clicks I get those days. And I love how all the findings make my pile grow. Without all those memes, I would’ve never accumulated such a large reading pile, and there would’ve been many great reads that would’ve slipped right through my fingers.

    However, since I don’t use an “incoming” overview like feedly, but are seeking out the hops, I guess it’s not really that easy to compare…

    Caro @ The Book Rogue recently posted: P.C. & Kristin Cast: Lenobia's Vow
    1. I said that I don’t mind reading memes from the ~5-7 blogs I follow through email, because with such a small number it doesn’t get old or annoying.

      But when I open my feed reader (which has hundreds of blogs in it), I do not like looking through 50-100 Waiting on Wednesday posts because they start to feel identical really quickly!

  3. I love reading memes. I like hearing what books people are interested in because that’s how I learn about new books I never would have known about if they didn’t mention them. I use to only do one meme, Stacking the Shelves, but now I occasionally do Waiting on Wednesday too since I have three jobs and go to school as well. I never begrudge bloggers for participating in memes. If I am not interested in reading that meme that day, then I don’t, no big deal.

    Hmm, so I guess I am not on your love list since I got screenshot, lol. But see, that doesn’t bother me because I know what I put on my blog and I feel good about it. I know I do less memes then most bloggers our there and the occasionally ones I do I feel good about. You just don’t have to read them since they don’t interest you. That’s why I follow all blogs through bloglovin’ now, I can just scroll right through the posts that don’t interest me at the time. No harm done. But I don’t begrudge bloggers for participating in fun memes. Especially the popular ones that get the most reach.

    Jennifer Bielman recently posted: Review: Cruel Beauty by Rosamund Hodge
  4. Actually, I tend to check my feeds MORE on meme days. I look forward to them. Maybe it’s because I’m a relatively new blogger, but meme posts make it easier to comment and interact.

    1. I’m glad you like them! Honestly, I think I used to like them a lot more when I was a newer blogger. I just got sick of them!

  5. I’m not very bothered by it. I just comment on as much meme post as I like and all the others are marked as ‘read’ or I keep them to comment another day. Everyone should post whatever they want to post, so I don’t really mind. I rarely do memes, only when I really like a topic or feel like I have to share X book I recently found.

    Mel@thedailyprophecy recently posted: Review 233. Amalie Howard – The almost girl.
    1. Yeah sometimes I like TTT posts. I think it’s just after reading like 7 of them, I can no longer bring myself to read any more. 🙁

  6. I do get that. It does feel too much on Wednesdays particularly. I LOVE Stacking the Shelves, so that’s not a problem for me. But I quite WOWs when I found I wasn’t getting very many hits. I don’t have a problem commenting on other people’s posts though, because I know the reason we’re attracted to memes is we’re trying to build our audiences and we’re all swamped and don’t have billions of ideas all the time, eh? I toootally get that. But all the same, it is overwhelming to know on Wednesdays all I’m going to read are WOW posts.

    1. What is WOW? I’ve been reviewing books for several years on my lifestyle blog, but only recently launched an entertainment blog, and I’m quickly learning I know nothing. #lol

  7. I follow blogs through Bloglovin, it’s how I keep track since I hate emails cluttering up my inbox. On meme days it can be a nightmare! I basically just scroll past any post with the Waiting on Wednesday or Top Ten Tuesday title no matter who posted it. I hate checking my Bloglovin feed on those dasys but I’m always afraid I’ll miss something great if I don’t!

    Jennifer @ Live to Read, Love to Read recently posted: Cover Reveal: The Queen of Zombie Hearts
  8. I participate in a few meme’s and I usually check out about 15-20 blogs that are doing the meme just to see what is interesting to them. Sometimes it seems like the same books are listed. I usually check out things via bloglovin so I do see a lot of meme’s on certain days and after I have checked out so many I skip others. I can understand how it gets a bit bogged down with meme after meme. 🙂

    Stormi recently posted: Review of EKHO
  9. I’m not a fan of memes for this very reason. Meme days feel like there is nothing else, so I usually skip over the posts. I read them for whoever I sub by email to, but no one else. The Life of a Blogger is the only meme I will go out of my way to read. It’s gaining in popularity, so it’s getting to be a longer task, but that’s fine. It’s super interesting. It’s the only one I really do also. I will do a few Feature & Follow Fridays from time to time, like one a month or every other month, but I only bother to read them on the weeks I do them. The rest of the time I usually don’t care. I’m getting burnt out on Cover Reveals too, especially for a popular book. They just flood my feed. I am thinking of skipping out on doing them unless it’s a book I really am looking forward to, or for an author I love. I’ve done a few that looked interesting, but I ended up not caring for later on.

    1. Yeah good point about cover reveals. If it’s a pretty cover I like seeing it once.. but it can be annoying when you see 10 posts about the SAME cover. 🙁

  10. Ugh, I hate Waiting on Wednesday. I never read them. EVER. I don’t use Feedly, so thankfully I don’t have to worry about a feed being clogged with those posts, but some of the blogs I follow by email do WoW posts. I don’t ever read them, I mark them as ‘read’ and move on. 90% of the time I can’t even be bothered to see what they’re waiting on.
    I used to like Top Ten Tuesdays, but lately I’m getting sick of them. I do glance at those posts from the blogs I follow out of curiosity, but I never comment on them. I just don’t really care about them anymore.
    I feel this way about blitzes and promos, too. Which is why I try to never do them! Every once in a while I will, when it’s a book I loved, but since I don’t read them I don’t like doing them because I feel like nobody will want to read them.

    Jessi @ Novel Heartbeat recently posted: Review: Ignite Me by Tahereh Mafi
    1. Exactly! Every now and then a WoW book cover will catch my eye, but most of the time I just instantly delete it. And I only read TTT posts if the topics interest me, which isn’t that often. 🙁

      And yeah, it’s super annoying when you see 10+ of the exact same blitzes/promos/cover reveals as well. It’s even worse when the host has provided a “copy and paste HTML template” that everyone puts on their blog.. so everything, from content to layout, is IDENTICAL! Sheesh.

  11. I tend to skip over meme posts unless I’m actually participating. I occasionally participate in Top Ten Tuesday depending on the topic. Waiting on Wednesday I almost always skip over, unless I notice from the photo that it’s a book I’m looking forward to or that I haven’t seen that looks interesting.

    Amy M. recently posted: Friday Weekend Round Up
  12. I only do Top Ten Tuesdays every other week because I feel like it’s too much to do it every week, but I can definitely see how it gets to be too much. It really really gets tiring when it’s posted all the time that you know when you go on someone’s blog that’s what you’re going to see. I don’t really mind the lists and stuff like that but sometimes WoW’s get repetitive when it’s only one book being spotlighted. Fantastic post, Ashley! <33

    Eileen @ Singing and Reading in the Rain recently posted: 16 Things I Thought Were True by Janet Gurtler Tour Stop
  13. I used to participate in quite a lot of memes when I first started blogging, but over time I realized that I’m not really into them anymore. I do participate once in a while if the topic is one I want to chime in on (like in Top Ten Tuesdays), but I don’t do WOW anymore or the mail post one on weekends. I agree with it clogging feeders.

    Chrystal @ Snowdrop Dreams of Books recently posted: Romance Week Guest Post: The Star Catcher by Stephanie Keyes
  14. Oy, I feel you Ashley! It’s not a big deal for me to flip past the posts and just ignore them but I get all sad thinking of how little variety I get in my reader on Tuesday’s and Wednesday’s because my feed looks EXACTLY like yours — right down to the phone! I’ll click on a few TTT posts, almost never on WOW posts. Sometimes I’ll participate in Top Ten Tuesday but not often because it’s just very time consuming and the topics don’t always interest me. With Waiting on Wednesday, I just have a sort of alternative on my blog where I round up all the books that I have my eye on and sometimes there’re also upcoming releases so it’s a bit like hitting two birds with one stone.

    Annie recently posted: Happy Valentine's Day!
  15. I guess I follow a different mix of bloggers since I generally don’t have the meme problem quite to that level. WoW posts are interesting/useful for me when a blogger features something I haven’t seen before, but if it’s a book I’ve seen a lot about, I scroll past. TTT just depends on the topic, though I usually get tired of them after the first 10 or so posts that I see. I’ve pretty much stopped doing any memes other than a TTT post once and a while when it is interesting to me. I have enough of my own features etc that I don’t really have room to fit other memes in anyway, haha.

  16. I don’t participate in memes anymore bar STS which is now once a month for me. I really have no interest in checking my blog read on a tuesday or wednesday unfortunately which I do feel guilty about but I’d prefer to spend my reader time reading reviews. One thing that irritates me more is the blogger copy and paste HTML cover reveals/blitzes etc. It’s a lot harder to format those posts in WordPress so it does seem to be more a Blogger blog thing and they get clicked “read” immediately because there’s no personality put into them whatsoever.

    1. I totally agree about those copy and paste HTML things… I honestly think those are so pointless. What’s the point of even blogging if you’re just going to copy and paste material from someone else?

  17. I participate in It’s Monday! What Are You Reading, Top Off Tuesday and Wishlist Wednesday. The first one I like because it lets me see what my friends are reading. The second one is more of a fun thing and I like looking at the hot covers. The third one is nice because I can see what my friends are waiting on and it helps me find new reads. I also like the various other wishlist posts and mailbox posts even though I don’t participate. Sometimes I’ll read Top Ten Tuesday if it’s a topic I’m interested in. Other than that, I usually just skip over them.

    Ashley @ Dr. Pepper Diva recently posted: VA-VA-VOOM Read-a-Thon Wrap Up
  18. I don’t love all memes… but it doesn’t bother me to see them in my reader. I just skim past them if I am not interested. I think though it can be fun… and give others ideas. For example sometimes WOW will talk about a book I didn’t even realize was coming out. TTT I don’t participate in a lot but it is very popular and that is a post that has real comments usually, unlike WOW where people say “great pick, come check out mine”.

    Angie recently posted: Discussion: Star Reviews
  19. This is probably the reason I stopped doing Waiting on Wednesday posts because after awhile they start feeling redundant. Now I just scroll past them on Feedly.

    I still do take part in Top Ten Tuesdays sometimes and I try to put a twist on the week’s topic so that I’ve something different to offer.

    Sana @ artsy musings of a bibliophile recently posted: Love-A-Thon 2014
  20. Most of the time I skip over memes. Usually, those posts get a lot of attention from other people participating in the memes, so I feel like my comment will be ignored anyway. I’d rather show my love on the forgotten posts…like, eh, reviews.

  21. I am not a religious meme person. I only do Top Ten Tuesday if the topic is one I can actually contribute to and like. Same with Waiting On Wednesday. If I’m going to do it, it’s a book I’m really, really excited about and cannot stop thinking about. Sometimes I will do Waiting On Wednesday if Epicreads Teatime has just shown new books and I’m fired up. LOL … But I did Life of a Blogger this week and will probably keep up with it. I also liked the 15 Day Book Blogger Challenge that was going around this summer because it felt more like a get to know you type of thing, as opposed to hundreds of bloggers talking about the same books. 🙂

  22. I don’t particularly like memes – I participate in the occasional Top Ten Tuesday (maybe four or so since I started blogging a year and a half ago, so VERY occasional) and that’s about it. I’ve never been interested in posting a Waiting on Wednesday post, nor do I ever read them.

    I think the content & theme of Top Ten Tuesday dictates whether I comment on them or not. If the blogger has picked out some books I really love or really want to read then I’ll take a look – but I won’t always comment either.

    I’m really trying to avoid these sorts of things on my blog now, and go for my own content. My favourite thing to read (and comment on!) is discussion posts – like this one 😉

  23. I tend to scroll right past them. Every now and then I’ll read a Top Ten post, but I don’t read any of the others.

    I don’t really participate in memes, although I like reading the ones like Life of a Blogger, where they’re all different and tell something about the blogger.

    Echo @ InkBerry Books recently posted: Sunday Says :: Four
  24. I do the Top Ten Tuesday posts every now and then (if I like that weeks question of course…) sometimes I skip them altogether. At first I thought it was super fun to do, but I’m starting to do them less and less.

    And they do clog up the readers… I do agree with that, I visit some, but overall I skip trough them.
    Great discussion post!

    Iris recently posted: THE LADY THIEF Blog Tour
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  26. I find I try to comment on meme posts for a meme I’m participating in (like TTT), but if I’m not participating that week, I usually skip over them.

    It doesn’t bother me when my reader’s full of memes (just means I get through it faster! Haha), but I definitely see what you mean about everything looking/sounding the same on popular meme days.

  27. I am not a fan of memes. Even though they may have unique answers, the topic alone can be overwhelming. I look forward to features way more, because that kind of exclusivity demands your attention (*smells a blog post*). I am barely blogging (or reading), but I would never resort to participating in memes for content. I do love Life of a Blogger as well too. Now that is very interesting and very personal. I can see myself participating in that one if I had to choose. Great post as usual, Ashley!

    Christine @ Oh, Chrys! recently posted: Love-a-Thon Twenty Fourteen
  28. Haha wow those screenshots are an eye opener huh? I stopped WoW I found it was boring and more fluff than anything. I do like TTT though those I find both fun to do and to read. They’re kind of like a discussion post. I also like STS bc I love stalking what people have gotten! 🙂 And it also tells me what ARCs are now available. I think most people do moderate them – or at least when I visit blogs regularly I don’t notice a huge amount, but when you look through Bloglovin or Feedly on those days you still notice the heavy volume of all those “blogs who do few” put together I guess. Tuesdays could be our “catch up on our reading” day instead >.<

  29. I get really tired of Wordless Wednesday. It’s never wordless – including mine, I just can’t stop talking!! – and I rarely find stuff I’m actually interested in seeing. I still sometimes do them, but I don’t know why. Seems the thing to do. I should really stop.

    I just started a new meme on my blog, called Movie Monday (see the link). I need to figure out a linky (I’ve never done one before), but I don’t know enough entertainment bloggers to really hope to fill it with anything but my own stuff, so I’m torn on how to get that started.

    The only other meme I do is KidLit Friday, which I started last year. I like it! I need to get a linky going for that one, too.

    What is Stacking The Shelves?

    Alena Belleque recently posted: Movie Monday #1 – Little Boy
    1. Stacking the Shelves is where you showcase all the new books you got that week. 🙂

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