The Distribution of the Future, or, Why I Don't Need BoingBoing As Much Anymore

In terms of the future of information -- at least when I personally become aware of a piece of information -- I'm finding more and more that information is reaching me sooner than it used to -- and I'm then turning around and disseminating it faster than the sites that I used to originally get the info from even know about it yet! (Whew, try to diagram that sentence, I dare you.)

For instance, on Feb 5, 2006, I was one of the first people to blog about Chris Bliss and his infamous juggling act (accompanied by music from The Beatles' Abbey Road album). Waxy blogged about it on a month later. BoingBoing picked up on it even later. A week or two ago I saw it on TV.... interesting how that's been propagating in ever-wider waves. But to me it's already at least 10 web-years old.

Same thing happened with the recent San Diego mystery boom (blogged about here, here, and here). San Diego bloggers were, naturally, the first to write about it. Much later it shows up on BoingBoing and for me it's like, eh, whatever.

Today, BoingBoing mentions StarLords, a new video mashup of Lord of the Rings and Star Wars. Bleh. Already knew about it. Not interesting. (And I don't think the video is that great, except for the part with the turning heads -- that is inspired.)

But it made me realize: MOST of what is on BoingBoing and Waxy's links anymore is stuff I have already heard about elsewhere. This is a very interesting shift.

What is causing it?

No question about it: it's my increased usage of Reddit, Digg, and Del.icio.us, and in that order of importance. These sites are helping "distribute the future" far more than BoingBoing or the Waxy Links. (And what's nice, they do so without all the ugly obnoxious meaningless ads and self-promoting clutter that has so nascarized BoingBoing).

I still visit BoingBoing and Waxy Links but I am visiting them less frequently thanks to these other services.

I wonder how many other folks are doing the same?