My Phone Bias Part 2: It’s not about SLAMMING popular phones…

It’s worth checking in periodically. As my channel evolves and shifts over time, it seems some folks might miss what the goal is here.

To begin, I believe disclosing explicit bias is critical to fair reviewing. No human reviewer is a truly objective machine. There is no such thing as objectivity. Full stop.

I believe a review needs context. If we’re not sure where a reviewer is coming from, then we lack a critical perspective to understand why a reviewer might grade certain aspects of a phone the way they do.

I laid my cards on the table a couple years back, and I’m happy that basically everything I talked about in my “BIAS” video still pretty much holds true today.

Now you know where I’m coming from, and what I value.

Since then however, this conversation has grown more concerning. The issues I talk about at the tail end of that video seem to be getting worse, not better. Over 2019, a major focus for my channel has been to point out media literacy issues which I believe contribute to some disturbing trends in consumer electronics.

Today we find ourselves in a serious and unique situation. Gadgets and electronics are being stressed like never before. How someone spends their gadget money has never been more important.

I naturally have a bit of a contrarian streak, and I enjoy stirring the pot for fun debates. The goal of my channel has never been, and will never be, to trash popular devices simply because they are popular. I’m not praising “less popular” phones just to throw a thumb in the eye of the “cool kids”.

This needs a bit of explanation… Continue reading “My Phone Bias Part 2: It’s not about SLAMMING popular phones…”

My Smartphone Bias: Fanboy? Hater? – SomeGadgetGuy Vlog

From time to time, it’s worth revisiting what we’re trying to accomplish. Talking about smartphones, it’s important to share what my goals are, so let’s have a chat about what we all want from tech YouTube videos. What do you care about? Here’s what’s important to me.

Continue reading “My Smartphone Bias: Fanboy? Hater? – SomeGadgetGuy Vlog”

Agenda “Journalism” and Waiting for “Perfection”

WP_20130728_004I think we’re at a tech crossroads. I’m not sure which road we’ll travel down.

There’s a problem with how we talk about news in this industry. I’m complicit in that problem to a degree, and around me I’m watching the foundation of this market start to crumble. At its core, we tech journalists are beholden to metrics like views and bounce rates. To satisfy those demands we have to get you, the reader, to actually engage. The most popular sites among us have developed a number of handy tricks to goose interactions from their subscribers. Tactics known so well that we’ve coined terms like “Flame Bait” to describe them. We all know what’s going on when we come across these types of tactics, and we know that the site using them is rolling in traffic.

As with political news delivery, the tech landscape is fragmented into reinforcing a reader’s previously held notions. We don’t strive to challenge anymore, to present the “new” in this industry. If your site starts to find some popularity among a certain niche of readership, that’s what you are. An Apple blog. An Android blog. A Microsoft blog. You’re done. Whatever commentary you can hope to offer beyond that branding, you’ll always be colored by that general perception. Your audience will take those things for granted, as they too are fans of the things you like, and hate the things you hate.

Moving beyond the natural biases an author holds, we all hold a certain bias regardless of our attempts at objectivity, we’re human, but beyond those biases I’m saddened to see once respected organizations catering to blatant agendas. Misrepresenting products for no other benefit than to increase site hits, start flame wars, and satisfy an audience who doesn’t want to see competition, but see their “side” win. Whatever that might mean… Continue reading “Agenda “Journalism” and Waiting for “Perfection””