I know, crazy that someone pursuing a life in information science likes a hot mess, but I can't help myself. Don't get me wrong, I have a healthy respect for classification and organization. I walk that line. I get it. But when it comes to my personal information pursuits, I like to do the pursuing. Serendipity is my religion. I think that aggregators take away some of the joy that is the randomness of internet browsing. Aggregators are valuable for information you know you will use, but let's face it, if it's easy to press a button and add a feed to our aggregetor we are probably going to do it, even if we might never look at that information again. We end up clogging our aggregators up with junk and contributing to information overload, not harnessing it.
For me, there are sites that I know I will visit because they have passed the test of time with me--I have made it a point to seek them out again and again. These may be the type of sites I would aggregate, but then again I don't like one stop shopping. I hate the mall and aggregators make me feel like I'm at an information mall. Granted, it's a mall of all my favorite "stores", but still. I add my favorite blogs to my home page so I can see updates, and all others I catch as I am able...but I still have to make an effort. Think about it this way: I may waste time clicking around looking at all sorts of information, I may have to go to 17 different places to get what I need, but I also know that I want or need everything I am seeking. It is, therefore, quality information for me. My time is invested in this information. Aggregators may save me "clicking" time, but they might be wasting more of my time on inferior information, particularly with one-click aggregating. I may spend more time organizing my junk that I would actually exploring the good stuff.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment