What is Content Curation?
You ever been to a buffet?
‘Yea, plenty of times. Golden Corral is one of my favorites!’
How did you feel before the buffet?
‘Very enthusiastic about eating a lot.’
What about after?
‘I felt regret. The rest of my day was spent recovering from all the food.’
That’s how it’s like when there is overconsumption with content.
This is the era to learn how to be DIGITALLY literate.
One of the factors of being digitally literate is knowing when to cut back.
Knowing when to curate information allows us to progress on our path, rather than being distracted by the newest shiny object.
Rather than eating everything in the buffet…
Eat enough so the rest of your day is not ruined.
What is Content Curation?
Content curation is the process of selecting & organizing information that fits a certain theme.
‘How do I choose a theme?’
That’s based on personal preference.
Let’s take you out of the equation real quick.
Let’s say I run a website that doesn’t create any original content.
Instead, it gathers other people’s content through an RSS feed.
If my website is called LuckySportsFan, then what does that imply?
‘It implies that the theme of the page is sports-based.’
Correct.
If I put vegan content on the website, does that fit the theme?
‘Nah.’
Correct!
More is not more when themes are factored in.
It’s easy to get carried away with content curation.
One of the dangers of curating too much is being stuck in an echo chamber.
Which does more harm than good.
How to Avoid Echo Chambers
The key to understand is intent.
Intent is much different than intellect.
Intellect can be sharpened through tight boundaries.
Spotting intent is learned through pain.
Intellect can be measured with an exam. Will it be fully accurate? Probably not. However, it can still be measured.
On the other hand, spotting intent requires trial and error.
It’s very difficult to measure who is a liar with a multiple-choice exam.
That’s the same thing with content.
Some people are creating content with the intent to harm.
Or, they are creating with the intent to verbalize their regret.
There are individuals who got heartbroken in a certain part of life.
Now they speak in generals:
-All people from this gender are bad.
-All online businesses are scams.
-And all doctors are bad.
All advice sounds like good advice when you lack experience.
So there will be herds of individuals who listen to these clowns.
Speaking in generals.
They will learn how to spot intent the hard way.
Once they realize FIRST hand how generalizing too much does more harm than good, that’s when they will realize the importance of content curation.
Curating Effectively
The art of curating comes down to 2 labels:
-Empowering
or
-Draining
With this paradigm, it’s easier to welcome content that agrees or disagrees with our worldview, preventing us from falling into an echo chamber.
Sometimes, stricter boundaries are needed.
If you are going through a tough time right now, motivational pages, empowering instructors & content may be right for you in this context.
Due to this stage of your life, the optimistic content is given much more priority than pessimistic content.
As time goes on, maturity can be exercised.
To exercise maturity, gradually allow in content that can challenge pre-existing world views.
Still, restrictions are required.
If the content creator is moping around, delivering their news with heavy bias, and spreading toxicity, that’s to be cut.
However, if the person is delivering core believes in a reasonable manner, then this content can be taken seriously.
Curating content is just as important as creating content in the information age.
It comes down to constantly seeing if the material is empowering or draining.
How I Curate Content
Since you’re much different than me, I can’t be like:
‘Do this, this and this, and now you have the perfect feed!’
On the other hand, I can show you my strategy & you can draw your own personal resonation points.
With Twitter, I have 2 accounts.
For my ArmaniTalks account, I am very strict with not following many people because my main intention is to create.
Not trying to get caught up scrolling 20 minutes….30 minutes… BOOM… hours in a day.
For my personal account, I follow anyone or anything that interests me.
This is the account I spend less time on.
However, when I do spend time on it, I stay updated with different viewpoints & personal connections.
With YouTube, I am subscribed to channels that are geared around areas of life that I want to improve in.
Finance, fitness, relationships, etc.
With YouTube, I have looser boundaries.
Instagram & Facebook are not much for educational purposes.
It’s for personal relationships.
The main type of curation I do in these 2 platforms is in terms of people rather than content.
Empowering people or draining people?
If they are draining, I stop following them.
If they are empowering & aren’t whining away on media, I keep following them.
‘That’s it?’
Yea, that’s it.
Don’t make your content curation process another job.
Keep it simple.
Empowering or draining?
Guard Your Mind
Walking Dead is a popular show where due to a disease, certain citizens are displaying zombie-like traits.
I watched the first 3 seasons & enjoyed it.
The more I thought about it, the more I realized that Walking Dead wasn’t just a fictional show.
It showed real-world traits.
Rather than individuals becoming zombies of the body.
They can become zombies of the mind.
Recall the 2016 election.
Grounded, rational people were yelling & getting outraged by every new headline.
Their minds were hijacked.
And their bodies followed.
Not everyone on the internet is looking out for you.
Many are actively looking for you to fail, so they can outrage you & get you to take some kind of action.
Debate, fill their pockets, burn down buildings, etc.
Content curation is more important than ever.
Guard your mind.
That’s your safe haven.
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– ArmaniTalks 
