There’s a heck of a lot of information out there on the internet. If you have a job, run a business, have a hobby or two, you can go searching for relevant things to read until the proverbial cows come home. We all know this by now, (it is called the ‘information age’ after all) but is it a good or bad thing?

I have a theory that it’s easier to learn stuff nowadays. Some people reckon we are getting dumber and lazier because of how easy the internet makes it to search our answers to our questions. A quick google, and you have several sources to consult. You don’t have to really learn anything, you can just go look it up again once you forget. This does make us lazier, probably. But dumber? If every time you didn’t know something you had to drag out an encyclopedia, or hike it to the library, you probably wouldn’t. Right? But a few taps on the keyboard, and the answer is right there. Putting aside the issue of questionable sources online, I reckon it can only be helpful to be able to look things up so quick.

So I’ve been mosying around on Twitter, Linkedin, and the general web-o-sphere quite a bit lately, and I am astounded by the amount of info-sharing is going on. I’m reading about journalism, web design, writing, and social media. Easy right? That’s only 4 things. But every time I find something of interest, it’s linked to about a hundred other places to go. I end up on one crazy tangent after another, and often don’t exactly end up where I’d planned.

So I reckon what the internet is helping us to do, is hone our selection process down to a much finer art. If you don’t, you could be lost forever out there. And people reading, sorting and filtering content is vital to this end. Passing on useful links via Twitter is an example of some natural link-selection (haha). If someone I’m deliberately following tweets out a link they have personally read and think is great, it’s going to be much likelier to interest me than something I randomly stumbled upon online.

Having said that, is anyone else finding it annoying that every single thing we read nowadays, whether online or in print, links you to a million other places? My mother said to me the other day - “if I pick up a copy of Mindfood magazine, I want to read what’s in it. I don’t want to have to sit at my computer to get the full story somewhere else!” And it’s true, (thanks mum!)

While it’s essential these days to offer more to the consumer than just the very words you’ve written, you also want your readers to get something from what you’ve put together, not go foraging around elsewhere to find the rest, and then, ultimately leaving your publication for all the other information hanging around out there. Because there is plenty there, and the only valuable part, is having someone sift and sort through it for us.

Tags: information, online networking