My young friend Harshil Karia — who has recently started social media agency Foxymoron — recently asked me if there is too much content out there, if we have become so focused on creating (often duplicate) content that we have forgotten how to listen.
Well, I’m someone who believe that there can never be too much content. It’s a god things that so many of us are creating so much content, and here are three reasons why –
- The Wisdom of Crowds: The more people link to, vote on, tag, or share a piece of content, the more visible it becomes. When we engage with content online, we endorse it, make it easier for others to discover it. So, in fact, every click does count.
- The Value of Mashups: There is as much value in creating connections between existing pieces of content, mashing them up, as in creating totally original content. When we create mashups, we reveal underlying layers of understanding that were not visible before.
- The Personalization of News Feeds: Since we can’t read or watch all the content available in the world, we learn to filter out most of it and pay our attention to only what is truly relevant to us. As a result, instead of superficial “awareness” about everything that’s going on, we learn to build deep “knowledge” in areas that are of interest to us.
What do you think? Is there too much content out there? Can there ever be too much content? Is too much content a bad thing? Do let me know.
