We want information

Like what I suspect to be an ever increasing number people these days, much of my work involves presenting information to others. Sometimes in person during meetings, some times via email, and sometimes to vast numbers via the marvellous medium that is the internet. It's something I believe myself to be reasonably good at (though this is largely in comparison to people who are self-evidently dreadful at it) and it's something I rather enjoy; considering how that information, sometimes in copious volume, is best presented.

Most of us, I believe, wander through our day to day lives without ever really noticing just how much data is being flung at us. Or just how the density of that data is increasing. Film and television offer some of best examples. Watch an film from 30 years ago, for example, and the pace of editing will likely seem slovenly compared to comparable output today (the hyper kinetic opening of Moulin Rogue still deserves some sort of award in my estimation). I've seen it derided often as "MTV" style editing, but the simple fact is that we're information junkies - if the incredible growth of the internet demonstrates anything, it's surely that.

We live in an "at-a-glance" society. Once, not so very long ago, I would have been dismissive of that, on the basis that anything worth knowing is surely worth the effort it takes to know and understand it. But again, consider the internet, how it makes it easy to find information - I consider Google to be the most valuable resource I use outwork, outside of my colleagues. When it comes to news in particular it's remarkable just how easy it is to scan vast numbers of headlines, allowing us to dip into those stories which interest us, whilst paying scant heed to those which do not. It's a subtly different process from reading a newspaper where we can choose to read part of the article and then flit off to something on the page if it bores use - choosing to click on a link or a button to navigate around requires a more conscious effort that shifting an eye around a page. Admittedly the rise of RSS aggregators, and their increasing awareness of our reading habits, is likely to signal another sea-change in the way we acquire information, but it's early days for that yet. Nevertheless it's still interesting to note the format in which information is handed to us.

The reason for this pondering is a headline from the BBC News service, which initially seemed at odds with the seriousness of it's content: At-a-glance: Centres of devastation.