In the search of topics to write about something (read anything related) for our blog, I realized something. At this age of technology boom, there are an almost infinite number of topics for us to peruse on the internet. I was looking for something about latest trends in design and technology and I was bombarded with so much information that it made it hard to go to one website, read an article and absorb it. To make matters worse, the ‘other topics you may be interested in’ bar keeps popping up, distracting me from what I actually wanted to know about. And, it did not help that they were totally unrelated to what I wanted to write about but piqued my interest nevertheless.
We live in an age where there is an outburst of information about innovation. As if that weren’t enough, we are at an attention-seeking age where it is mandatory that our pages appear in the first page of Google and that we appear as subject-matter experts in order to become more successful and famous. Combine these two and you have got a very confusing end-user who wants to know more about the topic he/she is interested in, but ends up interested in so many other topics that he/she wasn’t even interested in, in the first place.
For example, I went to a website trying to find out about latest trends in web design and development. Pretty soon (read almost 2 hours later) I ended up reading about trips to space and how there could be a seat at the top of an airplane that provides the ultimate viewing experience (Now, you want to know more about it don’t you? Alright here’s the link: The ultimate window seat is a glass bubble on top of a plane) If you clicked on the link and kept it open in a new tab, I’ve made my point.
I agree that this is the age of innovation and technology. I agree that it is vital to stay updated on current developments so that you can hold your ground in a social situation and also to build upon your knowledge base. My question is this: How do we handle the information outburst we are exposed to at a single click? If I have to use more than 2 hours of my time, trying to research about something but end up reading about something else towards the end of my time, how can I be productive? How do we get our name out there as something interesting and yet ensure that the end user does not get diverted from the reason he visited us in the first place? Most of all, how do we maintain consistency of information? Because the way I see it, I go online to research about the most-hiring industry for jobseekers in the UAE and I end up with 5 different options, all picked out from the first page of Google and all claiming that the industry they chose, is the best.
