Photo by Ashton Mullins on Unsplash

Content is not King.   Content is more like microplastic, everywhere and in volume.  Content is not curated anymore, on the contrary.  Content is everywhere, sprayed like a firehose.

This is why the streaming wars on broadcast media content is reasonably meaningless.  Because when you see how much people can make from YouTube and the advertising model there, you wonder why Netflix, Amazon, Disney, etc is spending so much money and time creating “original content”.

Because we are all now self-important, as shown by our need to create our own narratives (Instragram, TikTok) and our own self-fiction.  Heck, some even want to test their DNA to create their own biological narrative.

In the early era of broadcast media, we had both content creation and network curation.  People in media became trusted sources of information.  Right now, it takes personal effort to curate what is true, and what is not.  And much like the concerns when portals were created, many personal curation attempts end up filtering all but what they want to hear, not necessarily what is true.

Because of this, we get other people’s detritus.  And the effort to filter, to listen, to critically think – is beyond many people’s capacity. (Unfortunately, I see this in working in higher education.  I also see a great deal of mental health issues, which I believe is tied to this.) And I also see less people willing to read, which may be a function of time.

Trust now is a function of curation.  And the instinct to trust is built on experience and wariness, not openness and willingness to listen.

This stream of thought came to me this morning when I realized that I was not reading new authors, having bought a new book from an author I had not read before.  I have been reading blogs and articles using tools such as Medium but finding less and less relevant content for my personal interests.

So how do you go about finding new relevant and honest content in (nearly) 2020?   Where do you apply a trust factor in terms of sourcing relevant material?  I watch less TV, listen to less broadcast media, and generally have less media entertainment in my life at present.  I no longer find it that relevant or entertaining.  But I see myself in the minority, given how many people are attached to small or large screens, or with headsets or earbuds on.

I am highly critical of content now and limit myself to infrastructure providers that are not going to make me uncomfortable with their efforts to sell my data in exchange for access.  Have we all become more wary?

Where do you find yourself in this next decade finding relevant and interesting content?