Filters

I had a conversation with my wife the other day and it got me thinking about filters and technology. She was on her Facebook account, where she has something like 600 friends now and she was saying that it is getting to the point where it is almost not manageable anymore. She said that it is almost a full time job to just ensure that she gets to see the right information from the right person. I am not a Facebook user, so I don't know if there is some type of filtering system that allows people to only see the people they talk to most etc... But it got me thinking....

I have held the belief for some time now that communications technology is only as useful as it is personal. What do I mean by that? I mean, communication and the way in which we communicate most effectively is determined by the medium where we have the fewest unimportant or unwanted interruptions.

For me, everything started with a plain old telephone and answering the telephone was important because there was no such thing as an answering machine or voicemail. So, you really needed to answer the phone because someone really wanted to get a hold of you. There were few unwanted interruptions in that media from the likes of telemarketers so it was valuable.

Then came cell phones. When they first came out, I always answered my phone no matter who was calling. I knew that not many people had the number so when they called, I should for sure answer. I controlled tightly who had the number and it was illegal for any telemarketers or bill collectors to call that number. Then we all got cell phones in the US and so it wasn't so private or exclusive anymore. Everyone had your number and you had their's, but talking on the phone became less and less desirable.

Then email came. Same pattern as before. Then IM came, again same pattern as before. Then in the US, text messaging become a huge craze, 10 years after Europeans had been depending on SMS. But all of these have again become almost burdensome because of the volume of messages or the interruptions with information that we don't deem important.

So we end up back at the first paragraph of the blog. What about Facebook? Twitter? Foursquare? Yelp etc....

Are all of these communications platforms just the next new thing that will someday become more and more burdensome for people to keep up with? Or will they invent ways to stay relevant with their users by helping them find the information that is most important to them.

If they don't, they might find themselves in a heap next to the rotary phone in my basement.