Technology & Innovation — December 20, 2011

Social Sharing Won’t Enjoy Limitless Growth

Facebook predicts that for the foreseeable future, the amount of information we share on the Web will double every year. Are we headed for an avalanche of daily trivialities?

bigthinkeditor

What’s the Latest Development?

Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg espouses a law of social sharing, which predicts that every year, for the foreseeable future, the amount of information you share on the Web will double. Today, the law of social sharing is a useful way to think about the rise of social computing, but reality will eventually make it obsolete.

What’s the Big Idea?

Facebook’s impending problem is that even if it allows future pacemakers to share our every heartbeat, the company cannot automate caring–the most important part of the feedback loop that has driven the social Web’s ascent. Nothing can support exponential growth for long. No matter how cleverly our friends’ social output is summarized and highlighted for us, there are only so many hours in the day for us to express that we care.

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