I first read this statement on techmeme, which took me to Mathew Ingrams Blog, which revealed that the line came from a college student who was part of an Intelligence Group focus group. The words have stuck with me ever since. Put it right up there with "On the internet, no one knows you're a dog" . It says everything about what the internet is, what it isn't and how it has matured to the point that we use it far differently than even 5 years ago.
I wrote a blog post a few weeks ago about how we live in an Open Book World. That there is no such thing as information overload, that when we need information, its so easy to find, that we just google it. There is no value for memorizing information , unless of course you are on Jeopardy. Value comes from knowing how best to look. Being an expert in using search and community tools. Call it being the SEOs of our own lives.
But what does "If the news is important, it will find me" really say ?
To this college student, there really is no reason to know anything but what is right in front of you. If you put your virtual self in enough networks, facebook, myspace, twitter, wherever, someone is going to ping you with "the latest".
We always talk about entertainment on the net and on tv as being different because TV is lean back, and internet is lean forward. It looks like information distribution has become delineated in the same way.
In this day and age, there are the things we are specifically interested in. The groups we "lean forward" and join, whether they are message boards, social networking groups, or websites we bookmark and visit, the tv shows we watch or DVR. Then there is everything else , which we trust will find us. The lean back information.
Its exactly what I do. I have a declining (although slowly) number of RSS feeds that I follow, and a stable number of aggregation sites that I "lean forward" and read. Everything else is extraneous and "lean back". If its important, someone wlil email me, post on my profile (and I will get an email alert for it), or one of the email newsletters I subscribe to will send me an E Lert and "it will find me"
This is what Facebook was trying to commercialize with its beacon. Its what Spokeo and FriendFeed are trying to consolidate and simplify. Its what twitter is trying to further enable. It will be interesting to see if it works o if people like things the way it is now.
Its the natural evolution and maturity of the internet. We have moved from discovery to activation to optimization to ubiquitous utility that allows the information you need to find you.
Put another way, we have finally reached the digital equivalent of Timothy OLeary's "Turn On, Tune In, Drop Out"
If the news is important it will find me
Recent Posts
- Beating Google ? (5/14/2008)
Reader Comments
(Page 1)2. "Value comes from knowing how best to look."
Your comment reminded me of something my uncle told me 50 years ago. He was a lawyer and I was looking at his extensive library of law books and I asked him how he remembered all that stuff. He answered "It's not what I know, it's that I know where to look it up". I guess things haven't really changed that much except for the technology.
Posted at 10:04AM on Mar 29th 2008 by Mike Genette
3. Reminds me alot of a book I'm reading by Andy Sernovitz "Word of Mouth Marketing"
Posted at 11:25AM on Mar 29th 2008 by Kenyon
4. "If the news is important it will find me." Kind of like the IRS.
Here, I came up with a saying that you might appreciate too:
"If you're really pissing someone off, you must be doing something right."
Posted at 11:45AM on Mar 29th 2008 by Jake
5. Dear Mr. Trump
Apprentice is one of my favorite shows. In fact I have a son that lives on Staten Island and at one time thought of trying out for your show. Of course I am his mom and I think he would have been good.
My question is what is with the pink ties. May be they are red. Depending on quality of the TV you are watching. I am making a quilt for someone who lost there husband this passed year and I am making a quilt out of the ties. Send me your ties and I will make you a quilt or pillow. I am into keepsakes and think it would be a nice one for your family. I am not a professional I just learned how to make them. I have only made two regular quilts and now I am teaching myself how to make this quilt from neckties. I watched a show years ago and wrote to the show and they sent me the pattern. I guess I figured it out.
I think a show where ordinary people could try and make a difference in someone's life. I have a son who was a drug addick and alcoholic. He has been clean and sober for seven years thanks to the Salavation Army. While he was going through the program I went to church every Sunday with him and would bring some of the men home for a home cooked meal let them watch a race on TV take them for a ride in my motorhome. Trying to show them you can have fun without the addiction. Ok guess I have said a lot of nothing so thanks for all the entertainment. Sincere Lyndia Brough
Posted at 12:00PM on Mar 29th 2008 by Lyndia Brough
6. mark, please contact me. youtube/rshace
I am from oakcliff, dallas.
I have the anwser for 9-11 truth
go to youtube,
I am a small builder in D/FW
white, conservative, x republican, that is tired of the corruption that allows 9-11, and the ability to steal an NBA title, both so blatant, my only response is CPR.
IF NOT U, us, Americans who r looking.... then who?
A critical mass is occurring, CPR can be a convergence point.
WILL YOU HELP
Posted at 1:37PM on Mar 29th 2008 by ronald hanson
7. Mark,
Knowledge is power, this statement has been proven so many times, we forget it it's existence. I myself find that my internet meanderings are limited bt what I search for, I do not seek it, I do not find it.
We are all guided by our own visions of what is relivant to us. Everything else is fluff.
I agree that the internet has matured, but I believe that we have not seen the best yet tocome.
Guy
PS. How often do your commenters mistake you for Donald? (Lyndia # 6)
Posted at 3:26PM on Mar 29th 2008 by Guy Pelletier
8. Your way is definitely the most efficient way to gain information from the miracle which is the Internet. But some people like a bit more control. I think that quality of people will hinder Twitter and the rest of the socially oriented Web 2.0 from achieving your dream of a more lean forward/lean back web. Maybe that's what Web 3.0 will be.
Posted at 8:05PM on Mar 29th 2008 by Brian
9. Mark you are wrong here. Connectivity has helped us research things in depth, but in terms of news it has been a multi-edged sword with lower accuracy standards and a focus on the same prurient nonsense that has poisoned our collective minds for years.
Important news rarely finds us.
http://www.webguild.org/2008/03/important-news-will-not-find-you.php
Posted at 8:35PM on Mar 29th 2008 by Joseph Hunkins
10. You are dead on the money on this one, Mark. In the postmodern, postcolonial culture, one's tribe is the source of influence (and information). I like the "lean forward/lean back" comparison used here, and I think there's actually hope for you after all. Go Mavs. Keep the faith.
Posted at 9:08PM on Mar 29th 2008 by Terry Heaton
11. Your network is a great safety net, but often by the time you hear it from your friends the WSJ or CNBC have also heard about it. I'd much rather have an earlier warning system that lets me quickly identify something I should know about--before the gossip reaches my friends email. :-)
12. Mark in one of your older posts i remember you mentioning how you have a sidekick. well just a little piece of information for you t-mobile has a program called my newsrooms where you can choose your favorite 5 rss feeds and have them on your phone at all times. whenever there is an update just scroll down and check them out.
as far as the topic at hand i know school is important for some but will i ever learn what i need to be successful there. what i mean is that evryone has a duty in the world and do they learn how to do simple daily tasks by taking courses for an extra 4 years of your life. i am a student and i sometimes just feel like the information age will inform me of evrything i need to know to have a good life. everyone has their interests and know the fiels in which tey want to participate in but im asking does it really require all this schooling or are we just making things harder on oursleves in the long run??
Posted at 1:56AM on Mar 30th 2008 by Anthony J.
13. "If the news is important it will find me." Kind of like the IRS.
Here, I came up with a saying that you might appreciate too:
"If you're really pissing someone off, you must be doing something right."
Posted at 10:55AM on Mar 30th 2008 by kız oyunları
14. it's amazing that in the fast pace of information overload, newspapers still survive bringing you yesterday's news, first one to put transmitors/receivers in ultra-thin pannels (modern day newspapers) so your modern-day newspapers get updated the very second something happen will earn billions to the manifacturing company. Aside iPod, mobile phone internet, people still like to have billboard-like news presentation and newspapers will survive for some time more, whether those newspapers are 'paper' or 'lcd-ultra-thin-pannel' based.
Posted at 12:03PM on Mar 30th 2008 by novak djokovic
15. THIS IS DANGEROUS!!!
The great danger of relying on your networks to bring you news is that it creates an enormous bias in the types of news you get, unless you take enormous conscious effort to avoid the distortion. (I hate posts that say "most people" without empirical support, so I'm going to say "I for one," where I expect I extrapolate to a lot of people.) I for one tend to associate with people who agree with me, or who share roughly similar outlooks on the world. I'm a liberal; I don't hang out with many arch-conservatives or Bush-radicals. I'm always surprised whenever I hear anybody say they think the war in Iraq is making us safer.
AND IF I RELY ON MY NETWORKS TO GET ME NEWS, I WILL ONLY GET NEWS FILTERED THROUGH MY OWN GROUP'S PRECONCEPTIONS.
It's sort of like a CEO surrounding himself with yes-men who never challenge his world-view.
Cass Sunstein has some excellent books on this phenomenon, which he calls "the Daily Me." When I read his Infotopia, I immediately added it to the reading list for the psychological economics course I teach.
Posted at 12:17PM on Mar 30th 2008 by Stephen
16. The "real news" are always hard to find. ;)
Posted at 5:11PM on Mar 30th 2008 by Mike Dammann
17. "knowledge" matters even more :)
Posted at 5:47PM on Mar 30th 2008 by JungTexican
18. Mark,
I really think that you took that quote and ran with it far too afield.
Access to information is not to be mistaken with skill at analyzing said bytes. While we might be training the next gen on SEARCH, little is done to assure understanding of context.
-J.
Posted at 6:29PM on Mar 30th 2008 by Jerry Weinstein
19. I LOVE what you had to say about this subject. I live my life in that same way.
Obviously, if there is LATE BREAKING NEWS that affects the entire world, or even your own little world, it will find you - and then you can deal with it as it comes. But for everything else, there is so much going on in the world every second of every single day... there's no way I even WANT to keep up with all of it, nor am I ABLE to. Trying to would just really stress me out.
So, like you say... 'If the news is important, it will find me...'
Christine
Posted at 9:59PM on Mar 30th 2008 by Santa Monica Real Estate
20. Mark,
Aren't you the guy who was recently quoted as saying "the internet is dead", that it's "for old people?", and that the only thing new in the last 5 years is YouTube, which is a ripoff?
http://www.multichannel.com/CA6463169.html
You mean the internet is actually evolving, and allowing you to do new things after all? Who would have thought. Oh, wait: everyone.
Posted at 11:11AM on Mar 31st 2008 by Andy Norris
Add your comments
Please keep your comments relevant to this blog entry: inappropriate or purely promotional comments may be removed. Email addresses are never displayed, but they are required to confirm your comments. To create a live link, simply type the URL (including http://) or email address and we will make it a live link for you. You can put up to 3 URLs in your comments. Line breaks and paragraphs are automatically converted — no need to use <p> or <br> tags.
1. Interesting analogy. Leary spent 20 years trying to put an intellectual spin on a phrase he coined to promote the benefits of LSD.
This is cyclical. Lean forward until overload, lean back until boredom. Or lean forward when time permits, lean back when it does not.
Beacon, Twitter, Spokeo, and FriendFeed break if everyone in your network is leaning back.
Posted at 3:22AM on Mar 29th 2008 by Mufaka