Quality vs. Quantity

by Tim Shier

Having just had a rather funny experience with Carlos, the Internet and something called a Merkin (better take a look for yourself – but be warned); it dawned on me, through absolutely no traceable logic, that the Internet and technology appear to be spearheading the quality vs. quantity paradigm, or rather – forcing quality out of the picture.

As has been preached in economics classes since the introduction of Ford's production line almost 100 years ago - “An increase in quality will result in a decrease in producible quantity, provided the available production costs remain the same” – this has now gone full circle. As a “consumer” of information I have to grapple with this teetering scale – do I read something properly or do I skim it and get through more? The cost now is time and the pay off is being informed about this ever changing world.

I’ve been thinking about communication a lot recently as well – communication has always been one of our core activities and nowadays we really are managing an awful lot of it. This is where my concern comes in, if we can communicate so effectively via bridging mediums (like social networking sites, mobile technology etc.) what becomes of direct communication i.e. a good old fashioned face-to-face coffee and a chat?
As more and more people tap into the “infinite” resources of the Internet this need for quantity at the loss of quality is going to become more and more apparent.

People appear to be becoming less and less discerning of quality and more interested in how much they can get for some set fee (time or money). The trickle down effect is beginning to take shape and the “hastening of the world” is only going to get worse.

2007/06/25 | permalink | comments (0) | trackbacks (0)

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