One Man’s Signal is Another Man’s Noise(bothsidesofthetable.com)
bothsidesofthetable.com
One Man’s Signal is Another Man’s Noise
http://www.bothsidesofthetable.com/2011/03/02/one-mans-signal-is-another-mans-noise/
2 comments
That's the general trend that I see shaping the growth of the internet, actually. At first, it was "how do I find XYZ?" Now it's more of "How do I find the right/best XYZ?" because there are dozens of discoverable XYZ destinations available.
At first it was discovery, then it was user generation. Now that there's exabytes of data out there, how do you filter it?
At first it was discovery, then it was user generation. Now that there's exabytes of data out there, how do you filter it?
As you get older you know how to pay attention to more things, or at least recognize them. It's not that it's noisier, our grandparents said the same thing, it's that older people's attentions can be grabbed by more things, their noise filters are stuck in the past. The younger someone is the less likely they'll clog their brain with stuff like knowing who Hugh Downs is, or having commercials trigger a memory.
But as we grow used to the noise around us I wonder if there's still a place for a disruptive technology that filters noise and provides us only with signal. Would users feel as though they're missing out? Would the quiet make them feel unsettled?