Introduction
Nice to have you with us again for another episode of Digital 4 Productivity and chapter 8 of the book Using Digital Tools Effectively.
As you know, this podcast will give you a summary of my latest book, which has just been published by Garbal Verlag. And those who have either already read the book or would like to listen to it can of course do so via this channel. Incidentally, there is a whole host of online material to accompany the book. This has been published in this digital series Gabal Digital “Neues Lernen” (New Learning), where there is not just a book, but a lot of additional digital material. So against this background, the book is definitely worthwhile.
Onlineinfo instead of ink
Yes, today it’s all about controlling the flood of information. Online information instead of ink. Do you remember that? Reading the newspaper delivered by the newspaper delivery boy at breakfast in the morning, ordering forwarding orders or newspaper vouchers when you went on vacation, and the frustration when the newspaper only arrived two days later.
A lot of paper waste due to the large number of job advertisements and classified ads. Fortunately, this is now a thing of the past. Since the Internet has been around I always have all the information I need online. I used to have to pay for the newspaper, but now I get most of it for free. It’s a brave new world. But somehow I find it increasingly difficult to find out what information is really true and to filter out the information that is relevant to me from the abundance. When I get free information, I’m bombarded with advertising and the good content is suddenly more expensive than the good old newspaper.
Yes, stinginess is perhaps not so cool after all. I always find it very, very unfortunate when this Praktiker motto of 20% off everything except pet food leads to the fact that not only pet food but also internships are now available. This company no longer exists. Unfortunately, ruinous discount campaigns do not lead to the long-term survival of companies. And in the age of AI, fake news is of course also becoming extremely popular. There used to be fake Hitler diaries. So there was fake news before. But nevertheless, it’s becoming more common.
On the other hand, the good news is that there are also counter-movements. There is quality journalism, some of which is paid for, of course. But to be honest, I’m also happy to pay for quality, including money. Yes, let’s take a look at the main problems with the use of online information and, of course, the solution.
Yes, as convenient as it is to quickly check the news of the day online and google it. As the saying goes, we often pay a price. This often means that it is information that is more due to clickbait addiction, i.e. to get reach traffic than real information. Yes, that’s why we often go through several filters before we find the information we’re looking for. Because even if information seems to be made available online for free, we are bombarded with advertising along the way. Information is filtered from our interests, we are lured with headlines. Secondly, we are always left with a queasy feeling as to whether the information we have just found online really corresponds to the facts. And thirdly, once we have obtained the information that is relevant to us, we still have the problem of what to do with it. We usually store it directly on site. In addition to the thousands of other pieces of information already waiting there.
It is becoming increasingly difficult to obtain the information you need
Yes, so the question when I look now, as I just topic one we don’t always get the information we need directly. So when I started surfing the Internet in the early 90s, it was still difficult to find information outside the technology sector. In my bookmark collection, I really did have all the relevant websites on a particular topic. Yes, as of 2023, when this book was written by me, there were over 1.8 billion websites and 60 million new ones are added every year. Yes, the search engines are getting better and better, but they also have to make massive selections in order to find the relevant things in the wealth of information. In other words, the question is: how do I find the information that is relevant to me? And the problem is exacerbated by the fact that information has practically degenerated into a commodity. So hardly anyone is prepared to pay money for information any more, but paid advertising will eventually become the main income channel for media professionals.
Advertising industry focuses on targeted advertising
Yes, and then to say that the advertising industry has just realized that you can also give targeted advertising there. In other words, I can simply place very targeted advertising here, which can sometimes be exhausting.
Traditional media are being replaced by social media
Yes, traditional media are increasingly being replaced by social media. Hardly anyone reads anymore. Makes the effort to delve deeper into topics. For example, I’m currently reading a really great book about migration. I just have to take a quick look. Just a moment. It’s by Heiner Haas Migration – 22 popular myths and what’s really behind them. It’s a great book because it simply explains the facts behind each of these 22 myths. And you can see that many of these myths, where it says we have more and more migration and things like that, are not true at all. Interestingly, there are also other things that I have always taken for grounded, for example that development aid is an antidote to migration, which is also not true. So against this background, to name two poles. And when I then look again at the issue of immigration, how much do I need? And when I then see that not even migration is enough to stop the ageing of societies, then that’s an example of the fact that there is differentiated information, but unfortunately most people are too lazy to look at it.
The good thing is that you are one of those people who listen to podcasts, i.e. those who go a little deeper. So, if you don’t listen to it yet, Die Lage der Nation, for example, is a podcast that I can highly recommend. It’s a bit left-leaning, but once a week it really assesses political events in Germany, Europe and the world.
The authenticity of information
Yes, then of course the topic. We can’t always check the authenticity of information. So if I take a look now, when I was about 12 years old, my father said, from now on you read the FAZ. And that was the ultimate punishment at first. Now I get withdrawal symptoms if I don’t read a newspaper. So I got used to it straight away. And the good thing is that there are now sites like Correctiv, for example, where I can identify fake news. There’s a page where I can say, “Gee, I’ve got a news item here, is this fake news or is it not fake news? Not just since the reporting on this re-migration meeting. So rarely have you heard such a false term? Correctiv has probably been known to many of you since then at the latest. I’ve been using this site for a long time to check whether news is true or not. Sometimes, by the way, there is a photo of an anti-right-wing demonstration in Hamburg, for example, where AfD members claimed that the photos were manipulated. And Correctiv has also proven this. No, it is a non-manipulated photo from dpa. So to say yes in both directions, okay, sometimes there is real information that is labeled as fake because of political interests. And sometimes, on the other hand, there is fake information that is labeled as real.
Not a good note-taking system
Yes, third topic The challenge is that hardly anyone has a good note-taking system where they can save things. In other words, you don’t have access to these things. Yes, that’s why I say the solution to problem 1 is to use basic strategies to find the information channels that are relevant to you. Similarly to food, there is also fast food and nutritious information snacks, the natural impulse is of course fast food, but I would simply like to encourage people to use good things from time to time.
So YouTube, for example, channels like Mr. Knowledge to Go, for example, really help you to understand the historical background? Yes, I have three basic strategies on the subject. The first is to use human intelligence. Ask well-informed people around you which information channels they can recommend, what they listen to, read and which media they follow. Second recommendation Use recommendation sites or portals. Top charts are not always necessarily an indicator of quality, but Media Stake, for example, is a website where you can find the fillet pieces of the TV stations’ media libraries. So highly recommended. And number three: use public lending libraries. You can now even use them on the iPad. I have the Onleihe app and I can read all the popular daily newspapers such as Handelsblatt, Süddeutsche, FAZ and more free of charge. It costs me €20 a year to renew, the first time it cost €57 and then each year only costs €20 to renew. I can then read the Handelsblatt on the evening of the same day instead of the evening before. But to be honest, that’s quite enough. And the Handelsblatt subscription alone costs over €40. So you’re already more expensive with a newspaper than if you use that. So it’s really very, very good.
Yes, you can use quality media and fact checkers, such as those that Correctiv has already used. Or there are also some AI fact checker tools that you should ideally use and create your own knowledge database. I do this via OneNote, you can write things down yourself via OneNote. If you take screenshots of images, articles or things, you can simply save them as images. Or you can use the WebClipper to save websites in this area. I used to use Evernote, but since OneNote is a really well-integrated part of Microsoft 365, I tend to recommend it. Yes, and as I said, tips for finding the relevant information. So I can highly recommend Media Stick and you’ll find many more links in the online section of the book. Once again on these topics.
Yes, the Apple PodcastApp is also a good starting point. It has really good rankings or Trustedblogs.com. So you can also find good blogs here. Yes, podcasts often also have a blog. So you can find a lot in this area and also this topic of YouTube. I no longer watch regular TV but have subscribed to YouTube channels, which I watch regularly. Yes, you can also discover new books via Amazon. I recommend the Goodreads platform. On the one hand, you can enter which books you have already read. Here you can also find the order of books in series, which is sometimes very practical if they build on each other. And you can get suitable reading recommendations from other people who are also reading similar books. For eBooks I use Skoobe, which is eBooks the other way around. I also have Kindle Unlimited. But I think Skoobe is a bit better, I have to be honest. The quality of the books you have is even better. It costs around €12 a month and for that you have all the Spiegel bestsellers, the main new releases and of course lots of other books. You can also find audio books there. And just this topic, the lending library. If you really like reading magazines, there’s a section in Kindle Unlimited. Very reduced, always a few. There are many at Onleihe and there is also the magazine flat rate Readly. You also pay a little over a tenner and for that I think you now have 5,000 magazines, including foreign ones by the way. Yes, as I said, I’m a big fan of OneNote, because OneNote is also available to you synchronously on all platforms. That means you always have this information available everywhere.
Top ten tips from chapter 8
Yes, last but not least, the top ten tips from chapter 8:
- You either pay with advertising, your data or money. You decide.
- Many good daily newspapers also have high-quality blogs.
- Mediapionier’s Krautreporter Lage der Nation are good examples of quality journalism.
- Incidentally, I am adding Michael Bröker, who comes from Mediapioniers, to Table Media, which entered the market after this book was published.
- Many good podcasts also have good blogs.
- With Feedly you have all your blogs on one website. What a great idea. That means I can still have all my blogs with me offline with Reader.
- So if you use an RSS reader that has an interface to your note system, then you have the perfect filing system.
- Readly offers a very good magazine flat rate.
- With Onleihe you have access to almost all daily newspapers and with
- Media Stick gives you access to all the fillets in the media libraries.
Conclusion
Yes, with this in mind, I hope I have been able to give you some guidance on how you can stem and control your flood of information.
And I look forward to you joining me next week. To the 9th chapter on optimizing your social media strategy.
See you then.
Yours, Thorsten Jekel.
Also available in: Deutsch
