Taking in information

Fred wrote a post today called My Focus Group of One.  He wrote about how our kids and I take in information and how that is changing. 

I have always been a hound for pop culture and information for your head.  I read the New York Times daily, cover to cover.  Although sometimes not as intensely as others.  I do the crossword daily or my day is not complete.  I still read a variety of print publications.  Elle, Vogue, W, Food & Wine, Gourmet, Bon Appetit, Saveur, New Yorker, New York Magazine, Metropolitan Home,  Elle Decor, Departures and of course People and US weekly.

I also get in my daily fix of blogs.  Huffington Post was a must to go during the political process this year but I have not been as enamored with it as I was during the election.  I hit up The Daily Beast once a day.  I also read Eater, Curbed and Racked daily and sometimes twice a day.  I like reading the New York Magazine blogs too…The Cut and Grub Street.  Once in a while I read Politico.  I have started reading a few that Jessica sent my way.  The Satorialist, Garance Dore and Fashionista.  Hit up the Hype Machine to hear new tunes too.

What is interesting is how our kids take in the information.  It is pretty similar to how I do it because they do love the magazines where Fred has no interest.  Both Jessica and Emily go to the blogs they read daily to keep up on the latest and greatest of what is their interests.  I assume Josh will begin doing that soon as he is certainly on top of the latest games on the web.

Yesterday I was talking with Susan Danzinger who owns and runs Daily Lit.  We talked about how people take in information.  These days it is short and sweet.  Twitter is a perfect example.  I can follow people I am interested in and with a few tweets during the day, I know what they are up to in 15 words or less.  It is almost like cocktail chatter.  All this quick information which can be taken in from so many different areas broadens the mind.  You can then talk to other people through formats like disqus about that topic to create a social networking component but I think most people want to take in what they want quickly.  If they want to dig deeper, than can, but if they just want their daily fix through an rss feed, they can do that too.

There is certainly more media out there but I am not sure I am taking in my information much differently than I did in the past through blogs.  I still come back from vacation and go through every magazine sitting in my mail so I don't miss a beat but some articles I give a quick glance to while others I dig deeper.  Same thing on the web.  There is now just more information available on a variey of different channels to take in information how ever you please.

Just an observation from where I sit.