Oversharing and Trust
Yes, we are now officially in the oversharing age. You would think this would improve the quality of information we get; that the massive, and increasing, amounts of shared info would be useful. But it’s looking like the opposite is more likely. And again it’s because we’re all too human.
Old-School TV Infomercial
The coined term “infomercial” labels the issues well. The oversharing we see all around us can, and is, very easily subverted to become large-scale exchange of infomercials. Recently, I’ve found myself mistrusting almost all reviews that pose as “independent.” In the past, except in rare cases, advertising was easy to spot. But consider this: you’ll now have to wonder if your “friends” are actually giving you their honest opinions or are they just walking, talking ads. It can get even worse, your friend may just be parroting his friend who was sold by her friend.
There is no conspiracy here. This kind of subversion happens because we are human beings looking after our own positions in the attention-driven economy.
My guess is that in the not too distant future this insidious aspect of “sharing” will push folks to moderate or at least modulate the way they see easily shared information. The novelty will wear off and we’ll become social-info-savvy the same way we became ad-savvy. As this process gets under way, we’ll have to find new ways to get authentic information across. It’ll be harder because the level of trust will be lower.
I’ve already heard folks say that they only trust the very few people they have listed on their well-guarded FOAF lists. Let’s hope the backlash isn’t that dramatic, and the level of general trust doesn’t fall that low.
