This article lamenting on how social media tools like Facebook make us miserable struck a chord with me. I have been noticing the same for the past many months. What was a tool to share ideas and personal news has turned out to be a competition to capture attention.
But my take is that this experience is but a speed bump to the future. Where, it is not only sharing that is frictionless but also serendipity.
Clearly, we are creating more information about ourselves than we ever have. The photos we take, the places we visit, the songs we listen, the ideas we have, the books we read, the movies we liked, are all getting logged in some database. And a lot of this sharing is already frictionless. Maybe even a little too much (privacy).
The next problem is to make serendipity also frictionless. Currently, I need to visit my Facebook page to see what I am missing out on (fear of missing out). But instead, if serendipity was pushed when its needed, it would be more useful. If I search for a book, I want to see what my friends felt about it. My playlist should also weigh what my friends have been listening.
Google Social Search is promising in this regard but it doesn't have the social data from Facebook. iPhone's Siri is another potential interface for frictionless serendipity.
So, until the serendipity engine is built and calibrated correctly, hold on to your seat belts. oops. News Feed.
So, until the serendipity engine is built and calibrated correctly, hold on to your seat belts. oops. News Feed.
