![\"My](\"http:\/\/prasadgupte.files.wordpress.com\/2011\/04\/fb_aging_app_status.png\" "\\"Still")
<\/a>Publicity fail<\/h2>\n
That application – whatever its name is – is a complete fail in terms of its messaging. Understand the scenario: that app is sending me a persuading message to try it on a friend’s recommendation. The least I expect is evidence that the app worked for my friend.<\/p>\n
\n So if A sends me a request to view that aging app, I want to see how A would look 50 years from now. And realistic evidence adds trust, that then drives my emotions to try it out, along with some peer pressure<\/a>. But what does the invite show you? A generic image of a old man, that in no way seems to be a product of an image manipulation algorithm or related to the friend who recommended it to me. Over and above, it generates spam by writing an external link to my friends’ wall. Result: #epic #fail<\/strong><\/p>\n We are being exposed to 60 times the data as compared to someone in 40 years back (read it somewhere). We’re exposed to scores of messages from the media galaxy: television, print, outdoor banners, news, blogs, firehoses (update streams from Twitter, Facebook, etc) and more. How much of it can you really take? Hardly 1% of it can be glanced through. But don’t treat the other 99% as backlog. Its sludge, let it flow away. In this age of information overload, ignorance is bliss, and ignoring unwanted messages is the secret to having the useful messages delivered to you.<\/p>\n When I accept friend requests, I ensure that I know the person personally and that the person won’t misuse the platform to market viagara or post referral links (sometimes I do that). I refuse friendship extended by recruiters, marketeers and internet trolls<\/a> (who just want to grow connections). This will reduce a lot of junk in your news-stream.<\/p>\n To date, I have unsubscribed over 75 mailing lists & 15 RSS feeds that I previously subscribed – knowingly or unknowingly<\/a>. With some stubborn sites like TimesJob, you need to keep unsubscribing until they stop. Other likes Shaadi.com \ud83d\ude42<\/a> leave you no option but to delete your account.<\/p>\n That’s one orgasmic feature Gmail has. Sort email from mailing lists, office, people, deal sites, bank statements, bills, jobs, etc and make it skip the inbox; nothing unactionable will ever reach your Inbox.<\/p>\n Every social platform has apps. And unless you want to know what somebody’s devil or musical name is, that information is junk. I’ve taken the pains to block several FB apps that keeps my news stream clean.<\/p>\n In India, you can register yourself to the national DND registry<\/a> to avoid cold-calls from telemarketeers & SMS selling weight-loss programs, investment options & holiday packages.<\/p>\n Hope this helps. Cheers!<\/p>\n \n Share\/Tweet:<\/strong> @prasadgupte Why ignorance is bliss in this era of information overload & 5 ways to filter http:\/\/bit.ly\/iYgdP5<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I’m a cleanliness freak – to the extent of cleaning up my Facebook wall. Over the last week, there’s been a lot of spam with wall messages that read: “Hahaha! Mine is hilarious. Check out yours”? Familiar? Yes, that silly app which tells you how you would look in the future. I never tried it, … Continue reading Why ignorance is bliss today & 5 ways to ignore online junk<\/span> <\/a>Information Overload<\/h2>\n
5 ways to filter incoming information:<\/h2>\n
1. Be careful with your social graph<\/h3>\n
2. Control your subscriptions<\/h3>\n
3. Use email filters<\/h3>\n
4. Avoid unwanted applications<\/h3>\n
5. Register to DND lists<\/h3>\n