The Changes in Information

Our modern world has changed the way information is received and digested in ways that can't yet be fully understood. It has become a two-pronged system with streams and buffers. Streams are the information you see and read in an instant. Conversation would be the classic example because you must respond on your feet. The same is true for the modern internet chat. If there is a second pause the other party cannot believe this travesty. However, there is a fine line between when a buffer becomes a buffer and stops being a stream. The simplest buffers are items like email inboxes where the information will sit until you deal with it.

Streams are wide and variable but all boil down to a simple ideal. Speed. The never ending goal of getting information a moment faster and at any cost that may be. A person on Twitter will keep looking minute after minute, for they can't miss the next update. The next bit of data that will allow them to gain an edge on their slower colleagues. These places have become a battlefield where the fight is fought to see who has the best sources and can gain an edge over others. Which one will be the first to share The Next Big Thing. These places allow no time for thought only for action. They reduce the natural interaction to a simple consume mentality that depends on information be broadcast in order for the person to survive.

Buffers are RSS feeds, an email inbox, Evernote, "Read it Later". Places where the information is in your control and you can deal with at your leisure. These places are for those who abstain from the battle for speed and wait for quality. Those who, though busy, will make time for the information important to them. It does not force one to be happy with 140 characters of fluff, but allows for thought and interaction with content. For genuine information to be shared and opinions to be formed. Every time a new stream enters the picture you'll hear that it will kill these buffers. But the usage of buffers just continues to increase. This is not because those other services don't have a use, but that they are a different type of information and do not compete with this one. So next time you hear Twitter will kill RSS really think about they're saying. Think of it this way: can 140 characters really replace posts of 1,000 words where the author placed their actual thoughts? Then decide whether that stance makes sense to you.

Streams and buffers each have their place, for different types of information. One will not kill the other nor will they combine to become one. They are different animals that are incompatible. They exist for different purposes and because of that each has it's own place. The stream for the "Here and Now", and the buffer for the "Quality and the Information" that is worth waiting for. That is the state of information today.