A Giant Filter

Thoughts on the ramifications of information overload.

Information Scarcity

There was a time when information was scarce and was only meant for the elites. Information was a novelty. Handwritten manuscripts were really expensive due to the amount of time and personnel that it took to create one. It was inaccessible and if you were one of the hungry knowledge seekers, you were in bad luck. 👎

Then came the printing press. It made access to information cheaper but still wasn’t easily accessible.

Information Overload

Our generation has been really lucky in that now we have information available at our fingertips. We use our smartphones to consume and distribute information. It is equivalent to carrying a printing press and a typewriter in our pocket.

But the easy access to distribution and consumption of information has had its own side-effects. Now there is too many information out there. It’s easy to be lost in information which most of the time isn’t that helpful. What was a reader’s dream is slowly becoming a nightmare. The internet, along with platforms like Google, Yahoo and others helped us with the problem of access to information. But, now what? How do we help ourselves out of information overload, of which half that we can’t trust anymore? How do we separate signals from noise? How do we maintain a clean, healthy information-diet just like the food we eat?

Will there be a Facebook that filters out the crap and displays the most important — not just relevant — posts on my feed? Instead of displaying a multitude of results, can Google or the-startup-at-a-garage-far-away build a search engine that given a query responds with just one single, accurate and relevant answer? Will academics remove the unwanted crap from syllabuses and only include the important course contents? Will somebody build a system to separate signal from all the noise? Will somebody create a giant information filter?

At Shorts, we don’t write for claps. It is a place to share original, random thoughts, but your applause do help us in reaching more readers who might be interested. Don’t forget to clap/recommend if you found this piece interesting. 😊

Follow us to stay updated on interesting thoughts and, optionally, to receive our monthly letters (coming soon).

Want to contribute? You can always reach us at randomthoughts.medium@gmail.com