Last week Michael Arrington wrote an important piece in Techcrunch, Blogging and Mass Psychomanipulation. It details how as bloggers we play to our readers for positive regard. We give ‘em red meat.

I think there’s social health psychomanipulation. Many of us indulge the obvious social health memes. We universally bash pharma, blindly buoy the empowered, blame the EHR, and champion just about anything at the intersection of digitally democracy and health care. Too many want to be accepted, retweeted, and linked by an evolving hierarchy of power brokers looking to advance one self-imposed new standard.

And every now and again I fall into the trap and offer bread and circus.

If you’re preoccupied with traffic metrics and the blind need to belong, go ahead and jump on the psychomanipulation bandwagon. Push those big red easy buttons of social health.  Contribute to the echo chamber. Then read Michael Arrington’s piece and look in the mirror.

Who (or what) are you really trying to advance?