Are Consumers Drowning in Data?

In April 2011, 200 content consumers and Web surfers were surveyed for a "Digital Lifestyle Information Survey 2011," which found that consumers are facing a torrent of data growing faster than ever before. Results prove that the continued growth of content and data creation, without new ways to manage the consumer experience, will create catastrophic results for business productivity and people's personal lives and well being.
 

The impact is widespread. 48.5 percent of the survey respondents said that they are connected to the Web "from the moment I wake up until the moment I go to bed." 

Plus, Google Chairman Eric Schmidt has said publically that we are now creating five exabytes of data every three days. That's all the information that was created from the beginning of time through 1978. There's significant empirical evidence to show that the creation of both human and machine made data and information will only continue to increase.
 

"The volume of raw data coming at us has increased more than 50 percent in the past 12 months,” says Steven Rosenbaum, CEO of Magnify.net and author of Curation Nation, who fielded the survey. “As more digital devices and software services proliferate, the volume of data and speed of increase will grow exponentially.”
 

Continues Rosenbaum: "People have reached their capacity to manage data, impacting family, friends, productivity, and even sleep. Algorithmic solutions (better spam filters, smarter search, more connected devices) will in fact expand the problem, creating more undifferentiated data."
 

Here is a small sampling of the survey’s findings on how this data deluge impacts the consumer’s professional and personal lives:
 

·       76.8% - "My job requires me to be available online"

·       50.3% - "My clients expect to be able to contact me at all times"

·       41.2% - "I expect my team members to respond to me at all times"

·       31.6% - "When I'm offline, I am anxious that I've missed something"

·       76.7% - "I read emails and respond on evenings and weekends"

·       57.4% - "I never turn off my phone"

·       43.2% - "I will answer texts or emails while on a date/social occasion."

·       33.0% - "I check emails in the middle of the night"

·       35.2% - "I will answer work emails while with my children"
 

Survey respondents see content publishing, linking and re-tweeting as a key part of their emerging digital identities. Individuals managing and sharing content no longer consider it a hobby, but rather part of how they define themselves in the digital and social Web world.

 

“Human data management, shared and community filtering, and personal recommendations will fulfill individual's digital identity as content curators – while allowing content consumers to 'surf' less, and consume curated content delivered to them by trusted sources."