Last week-end I was reading "Data Smog : Surviving the Information Glut". Written in 1997, it's only become more actual these days. Some of his examples and arguments really highlighted the problems that blogs have today.
Blogs and RSS create a form of pressure to keep up with the flow. Feeds are really powerful tools, that attempt at giving us some more control, but they also control us in return. That's part of what the author describes as "information anxiety".
Feeds satisfy our need to feel plugged in, our growing craving for immediate segments of information, in a way similar to news flashes and ad spots. But as the amount of information increases, it becomes both more difficult for the reader to focus and for the blogger to compete for some attention.
A natural reaction for the reader is to narrow his centers of attention, to specialize, maybe to use automated filters. But that means his chances of encountering something really different and un-expected become smaller.
At the same time, like advertisers, bloggers craft catchier or more provocative titles. To illustrate this, I was tempted to title this post "Blogs considered harmful" ;-)
For many, starting a blog is a way to structure this knowledge. That's the paradox of blogs: as they help us organize our thoughts, they also have an external effect by creating more information.
Even though bloggers are very aware of the signal to noise problem, each new blogger contributes to the noise. It's not because a lack of quality in their content but simply the accumulation of voices and echos. And Google's PageRank isn't the only one affected by the cacophony.
Behavior similar to the collector ("collectioneur"): you need to have it all.
feed/fed/overfed/obese
Solutions:
less focus on new
being conscious and avoid echo
blog tools to help make private entries
other tools for knowledge management
Lots of information = less fact checking, less skepticism and not only from readers but even journalists
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/07/20/ms_blog_alcohol_culprit/
http://blog.thetechnologist.net/default,date,2004-06-30.aspx
Scoble makes big mistake in interpretation of MSDN changes of the RSS feeds
http://host190.ipowerweb.com/~davidshe/webimages/dsmogTECHREVIEW.PDF
New news/old news/education
Blogger's oath, etiquette, policy, charter, manifesto: echo versus addition
Considered Harmful Considered Harmful
http://www.google.com/search?q=%22harmful+*+considered+harmful%22
Feed overload
http://www.inluminent.com/weblog/archives/2004/07/17/rss_feed_overload/
Question: is there a good scheduler for human tasks? Is it better to switch or finish one task before doing the next? Is doing the shortest remaining task first a good approach? How can tasks be organized (wiki) to help store items to be handled later?
Can you really disconnect? http://www.sauria.com/blog/2004/09/14#1086
Microcontent personality disorder. http://www.sauria.com/blog/2004/09/23#1098
Internet Anxiety Disorder
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/04/09/1440228