Content (The MIT Press Essential Knowledge series)

(some studies have found that as few as one in four adults is able to consistently separate fact from opinion).

Bharat Anand, author of The Content Trap,

For novelists, for example, content about them and their work (i.e., posts, likes, mentions, and so on) translates into increased visibility. This visibility translates into more book sales, more reviews, and more invitations to read at literary festivals—and in turn, these activities lead to more content. Content begets content. As a result, in to

Finding ways to carry out large-scale content literacy campaigns without relying on the content industry, however, will prove virtually impossible. Ironically, content producers and providers will likely need to be part of any widespread effort to help the general public understand the effects of their industry.

According to one estimate, Netflix’s yearly original content added up to just over 1,537 hours in 2018 (for anyone who is interested in binge watching, that would offer about 64 days of nonstop television watching) and over 2,769 hours in 2019 (equivalent to about 115 days of nonstop television watching).

In 1994, the editors of Postmodern Culture, one of the first academic journals to start publishing on the web, were concerned enough about this new medium to warn their readers that venturing onto the web, which had grown from an estimated 100 sites in June to over 600 sites by December 1993, may result in “a kind of informational vertigo.”5

Printed newspapers produce short videos. Television news channels publish articles. Similarly, many book publishers now release videos and related content—hence, the growing popularity of the “book trailer.”

Above all, it is urgent that people of all ages and across all sectors better understand content—what it is, how it is produced, by whom, and for what ends.

By one estimate, as of 2020, the world was producing 44 zettabytes of data (or 1,0007 bytes) annually—an estimated ten times the amount of data we were turning out in 2013.