When broken systems cause filters to fail, individuals must step up

I think Clay Shirky made some really good points in his presentation at Web 2.0 about the idea of filter failure versus information overload. One of the things Shirky talked about was how information overload goes back to the ancient times, yet somehow we’re all still surprised by the concept. The bigger issue today is really filter failure. We are always connected whether it’s by email or social media or mobile apps. With so much information coming in, it’s really up to us as individuals to filter what we see. Too often, as Shirky mentioned, our systems fail us, so we have to teach ourselves to do some of the filtering on our own.

When it comes to apps, I think they try to filter and manage information flow, but sometimes it doesn’t work out as planned. The example Shirky gave was his friend who changed her relationship status on Facebook. She tried to change her privacy settings before updating her relationship so the whole world wouldn’t know, but somehow her entire network saw that she broke off her engagement. Part of the problem in the case of Facebook is that filters have to be set up by each individual, but they make it so difficult, we don’t always check the right boxes or save the right items. Facebook clearly has a flaw and filters failed here. Whether this was user error or system error, something was broken.

Mobile apps can be fairly successful filters

One app that I think handles filtering pretty well is The Washington Post iPhone app. The Post narrows down the fields so you can find stories by section. And then within each section, the stories are divided by topic. For example if you want to read only about the Terrapins, you can click Sports and then find the Terrapins within that section. Again, similar to Facebook, the user has to take the time to go through the process of filtering, but at least this way there isn’t so much clutter. And I think people would prefer this than having to sort through everything right there on the homepage.

Another app that filters pretty well is Twitter. For people that want to read every tweet, they have that option, but for those just interested in a specific topic, hashtags can help clean up the page. This is something journalists should be doing to help their readers. Most outlets or reporters tweet each story that goes out, but they don’t always include a hashtag. Just by adding a simple, one word hashtag to the end of their tweets, journalists will be able to let readers know exactly they the story is about. It’s such an easy way to filter information. The problem here is that we often see people using hashtags to be funny or to get in on a trending topic, while the tweet may not be related to the hashtag at all. This practice has gotten major companies into trouble, but also shows that no system is perfect. Twitter can be broken too.

This brings me back to another point that Shirky made: solutions to filter failure are just temporary and we must constantly be adjusting. We see this happening all the time; people find a way around the system. There are people that even like breaking the system to prove it has a flaw. I think dealing with information overload and filter failure is a never-ending battle. The internet has made this problem worse, but we must constantly be looking for new ways to control the flow of information. Or, as Shirky puts it, rethink social norms and how we do things.