Axios has a short, compelling piece called How tech ate the media and our minds from February that I’ve come back to a few times.
It highlights how “our brains have been literally swamped and reprogrammed” and the conundrum that even though we have all the information ever, “at least for now, the more we know, or can see, the less we trust.”
It’s short, but good. Here’s the summary…
There is more good information than at any point in humanity, but it’s harder than ever to find and trust. Almost every trend cited here is getting worse, not better.
And so much of the power to change it rests in the hands of the few, mainly Facebook but also Google, Twitter and Snapchat. Some publishers are putting the emphasis on quality content, which can help.
And others are moving fast to adapt serious news and information to better fit in these exploding off-platform ecosystems.
But ultimately, the burden will fall on individual consumers to exploit what should be the golden age of information by adjusting their own habits.
GREG SWAN 