Too Much Information

I just read All The News Doesn't Fit on To-Done!, and it brought a little focus to the "too much information" feeling I've had for a while.

Basically, the story points out that there's just too much news available and most of us try to take it all in. The end of the article points to ways to trim the fat, and the last item really grabbed me:

Look for not just news, but analysis. The mainstream media has largely given up analysis because analysis upsets its corporate masters. Look to the blogs--whether its high tech news, sports news or politics--for people willing to call a spade a spade and own their words.

It's true, the little guy is willing to tell it like it is. But that still takes up a lot of my time--too much, I sometimes think. Regardless of how good your writing, what you have to say, or the size of your audience, I believe most content is just "fluff" to most of us. Take this site for example: there are some very popular articles on this site, surrounded by equally good and bad content. How do I (or you) gauge what the most popular or interesting stuff is without reading it?

Another example: in the last 20 minutes or so, seven new items have appeared in my Bloglines account. Each of those stories come from writers I enjoy reading, post quality content, and write about things I'm interested in--but the chances are good that those items are only marginally interesting to me and maybe one of them will really be worth my time to read. Maybe later today or tomorrow one of them will post something really good that I can benefit from in some way; or maybe not.

In the end, no matter how much I try to cut down on the news I read, see and hear, I'm still flooded with pieces that don't quite do it for me and I waste my time with them. Am I just too picky?