We are all overloaded. If one thing is clear, it's that the overload situation is not going to change short of a global information disaster (and we don't really want that, do we.)
There are a number of services attempting to help people with the overload.
Curating the world
Twitter, interestingly, has become a curation service for many. It may have replaced the RSS feed.
Paper.li and Scoop.it are services that let you passively or actively curate content.
I'm trying an experiment with paper.li right now. My plan is to take all the newsletter e-mails I get now, and shift them to this delivery mechanism. I thought about putting them all into a different e-mail, but I'm not sure that really solves the problem, as most of the time I do a quick scan and delete.
Scoop.it is similar, but different somehow. The service proposes feeds and sources based on interests you input. You can then select and publish those sources, along with commentary. So it's a more active approach, and I think likely better for sharing with others, but you do need to invest the time. It might be a good alternative to blogging, actually, if you are not that into writing.
Curating the Self
Services like LinkedIn and Facebook are part of how we present ourselves to the world. Our web sites are out there. We might have a Slideshare page, a blog, a video site. Managing all of these faces is becoming a challenge.
Enter services like Flavors.me, which is kind of a self-curation project. It helps you pull together all the things YOU do online into one place. I find it a little confusing, but essentially, if you go to someone's page (here's mine) you can click on the links and see the content on the same page.
I think the whole role of curation in our lives is going to grow. It's a role traditionally held by major media, but they aren't pushing into this space (for reasons I don't understand, actually -- maybe they haven't figured it out yet).
What's your take on this?
I'm curious what you are doing to manage information overload, and yet still stay current?
