Too Much (Bad) Content — A Philosophical Ramble

The world of the Internet and on-demand self-publishing has been a blessing for many writers. People who have previously labored in obscurity have found outlets for their words, and many have enjoyed great success.

At the same time, we have also ended up with somewhat of a nightmare. 

What do I mean?

Well, now pretty much anyone who's ever been told by a doting and enabling aunt that they are good at writing can get their work in front of a potential audience.

As holds true for much of the human experience, what is our greatest strength can also be our Achilles heel.

Don't get me wrong, I'm all in favor of freedom of speech and all that, but we also live in the age of "Information Overload."

This morning, I had 252 emails in my inbox, quite a few of which were summaries of "newly published" pieces on various news sites and "bloggy" article aggregator sites. 

With the time demands made on most of us — and that would include myself — I'm barely going to be able to just process the email, let alone to spend time reading largely unnecessary content on several dozen web sites!

Think about it: If you end up with 500 people all thinking you have just six minutes to go read their article, you are already up to 50 hours a day!

That's what "Information Overload" IS, to my way of thinking.

The Concept of "Adding Value"

In one of the blogging communities I belong to, we have recently been discussing the importance (or lack) of "Quality Content."

There is a strong belief among many engaged in "Social Publishing" that in the age of social media, pretty much anything goes.

As these discussions go back and forth, I find that I have grown less attached to the notion of quality content, rather than focusing on the question of whether or not something adds value. 

If you're doing little more than making noise, while not actually adding anything of value to a dialogue, why bother? 

Of course, that's just my personal opinion!