On Comfort Bloggers and the 80/20-Rule

15 Mar, 2025

Note: I don’t intend to be disrespectful to anyone mentioned or implied in this post.

Recently there’s been many posts discussing the issue of a “comfort blogger”. The idea is that there are certain blogs where people find the writing and expression good enough to not expand further out. The idea has gotten some pushback with what I see as two major objections:

1. What is so bad with comfort? If people really find the blogs that they are reading to be good, why all the fuss?
2. Why are we assuming that people won’t be expanding beyond their comfort-bloggers?

Objection 1 is more or less subjective, I think. If you want to read one blog, then do just that. No one should be compelling anyone to do something they don’t want. So if you want to do it, then do it. Personally, I read only a couple of authors I like, and I pick up a book or two from other authors only if they pique my interest. So, if any blog is uninteresting to you, don’t read it. Find a post you like, read it. This is all supposed to be for fun or self-expression, right? So comfort bloggers in and of themselves probably aren’t bad per se, but they might hinder further explorations. Because I generally feel like this is how people do read blogs, or news for that matter: they find something they like and stick with it.

Which leads me to the second major objection. Why would the person reading their comfort blogger not venture forth into the unknown of the recent tab? There might be many reasons for that which is all related to the “80/20-rule”. The 80/20-rule, sometimes called the Pareto distribution, is a phenomenon whereby 80 percent of something is done/acquired by just 20 percent of a population. For instance, the namesake of the Pareto distribution, Alfred Pareto, noticed that 80 percent of the land in Italy was owned by just 20 percent of the population. We find this kind of behavior all over society. Here’s only a few examples:

80 percent of the healthcare dollar are spent on just 20 percent of the population.

80 percent of people live in just 20 percent of settlements, additional resource

80 percent of hard-drive errors are caused by just 20 percent of bugs.

Now I need to be frank, I am not a statistician. But I would say that the 80/20-rule is not normative, but merely describes a behavior which seems to pop up in a lot of places. There is a tendency to view it as a process of nature which is unchangeable. It isn’t. It is a consequence of accumulation early on and should not be used to explain why certain people deserve to be on top. But it is an observable behavior. With this in mind, I think there is something to be said about the mindfulness of this phenomena on blogs as well. What Winther recently posted comes to mind. Going out of your way to find other stuff takes effort, and staying put is easier. While saying that people definitely aren’t going to explore would be wrong, many won’t. And as such, this leads to this kind of unfortunate pooling behavior whereby those who either got in early or were fortunate to have piece of their writing catch on continue to accumulate readers. Much of what we believe to be our most classic (often understood as good or best) works of literature or music, I would say, really isn't. I don’t particularly like The Beatles, The Beach Boys, or Pearl Jam. I also don't find the writing of Alexandre Dumas all that interesting. They are an example of this kind of accumulatory effect. When people find a thing, they share it with others, who might also like it, and share it onward. And so it goes, and so it goes. That’s the nature of accumulation.

The Trending Page on any website is subject to something we could call a “pareto-meritocracy fallacy”. Look at me with the fancy words. This is the fallacy of assuming that just because something is gaining views, or likes, or any measure of its supposed popularity, that it must be the best and therefore worthy of being on the top. This is what we find in the veneration of certain influencers. While some might love Mr.Beast for example, he isn’t aesthetically “deserving” of any top spot. But I could name you many kids who swear by only a couple of YouTubers they watch, who probably make up 80 percent of their watch time.

In fact, I am old enough to remember the birth of YouTube and how the various big stars on early YouTube now are megastars. Vsauce, Michelle Phan, Shane Dawson, Veritasium, NigaHiga, RayWilliamJohnson, PhillyD (called sXePhil back then), Lily Singh, Rhett and Link etcetcetc, the list could go on for a long time. While I would say that many of these creators made good videos, I would hesitate to say that they are necessarily better equipped or better in general than some other person. We are subject to algorithm changes, site shut-downs, and just plain-of luck of having that one thing pop-off. I don’t believe that just because someone has accumulated followers, viewers, or readers per the 80/20-rule, that they are necessarily better than any other. What it merely describes is that the snowball accumulated lots of snow, not anything concerning quality.

If we take this idea to its furtherst conclusion I would say that this is probably a reason why the top often seems to look and sound the same. It isn’t necessarily a factor of their deservedness or their excellence, but a reflection of other people’s experiences, often a majority, aligning. In history, this generally looks like powerful white people declaring that other powerful white people were deserving of their place in history. They seldom found any reason to understand why the underprivileged couldn’t reach their heights. This kind of thinking is what kept women, queer people, and people of color out of authorship, because they just "weren't adept at it" or "we couldn't find any examples". That was of course hogwash. If power starts to pool, then of course we get inequalities. No one would seriously suggest that being the son of Tom Hanks doesn’t grant you access. Will it guarantee you success? No. But it does stack the odds in your favor. You start out with a bigger snowball and more snow to accumulate¹.

It requires active effort to make sure that you grow a live, vibrant, and diverse community. I do want to hear from other perspectives because it means that I don’t bullshit myself. Whether it be about aesthetics, literature, politics, or any other subject – listening to the perspectives of others sincerely, makes you a more understanding person. This requires that we share posts that we like and that we are mindful of what we consume and how we find it. Just because you find something on any trending page and you happen to like it doesn’t mean it ought to be the be-all end-all of exploration. Exploration requires effort and a sense of adventure. Whether or not you desire to go beyond the trending tab is up to you (as per objection 1). Lastly, there are also the structural things like how a trending tab is built and how it rewards good posts.

In conclusion, I don’t think you should feel bad if you have no desire to read more than your favorite blogger. That is your decision. I don't think you are doing a moral harm by not reading others. However, I would argue that this decision could hinder you from seeing other perspectives or other ways of expressing yourself. It isn’t a good in-and-of-itself to explore, but finding and consuming diverse perspectives has been theorized to influence how you view the world (aka cultivation theory). Mostly, I wanted to point out that there are multiple instances where, if you create a space where the least possible effort is required, it will reward certain kinds of posts which could quickly lead to pooling behaviors. Soon after that you could suddenly find that you have an 80/20 distribution. 80 percent of the views come from just 20 percent of the blogs. Is that what we want? I am interested to hear what you have to say.

.dash

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#internet culture #tech-essay