Death of content
Death of content is an important topic, and especially now that the internet is becoming an increasingly important part of our daily lives. The internet is used for so many things today, and yet we are still coming up with new innovative inventions.
But as we create more and more data it also becomes more important to understand that each of us have a responsibility to maintain the data we create and remove it once it no longer serves a purpose. Gerry McGovern wrote that 90% of all data produced is useless. People create more data than ever before, and it is only getting worse. But why? Data is created because we can.
Examples of unnecessary data
The list of unnecessary data is long, but a few good examples of it is listed below.
Social media
Social media has been around for years, and people are posting data about everything. On social media platforms you will find oceans of unnecessary data such as funny clips of cats, what people ate for lunch, and generally posts that are several years old. People are not thinking about that data they add to a platform will stay in their database until the day they either remove it or remove their account. If we take old posts as an example. Why would you save posts from years ago when they have no relevance to your life right now. Instead of just endlessly letting data fill databases, we have a responsibility to clean up after ourselves.
Forms
Another example that often creates unnecessary data is forms on websites. Many companies have made it a habit to add inputs, checkboxes and dropdowns asking users for data they don't even need. But why? Because they might need it one day, or maybe just for the sake of it. Some might be saving unnecessary data because they haven't thought about what information they really need, and others because of hidden businesses taking action behind the scenes.
Action
Changing the course the internet is heading starts with ourselves. First we need to take responsibility for the data we create, maintain it and remove it once it no longer serves a purpose. Like all of our parents once said; "If you can make the mess you can also clean it".
Start by going through your digital life or your company's digital life and ask yourself whether the data still serves a purpose. If you can delete it, we are already one step further in the right direction. Make it a habit to ask yourself whether the data you create will serve a purpose or if the internet may be better off without it. Make it a habit to be critical in your decision making; Do we really need to ask this information from a user?. First when we become more aware will we create a more sustainable internet without all the "crap" data as Gerry McGovern calls it.
