In his conference in California, Mark Zuckerberg announced new updates to Facebook, including video chatting that will make it simpler than ever to communicate with others face to face. But beyond that, Zuckerberg made the startling claim that Facebook users are sharing information at a rapidly increasing rate, as Jason Kincaid reported. Zuckerberg stated that the normal Facebook user was sharing twice as much information today as they were a year ago, and that users are sharing 4 billion items each day. Zuckerberg went on to describe the law of sharing, and that the rate of usage will only continue to climb exponentially.

Quality vs. Quantity

I believe that Zuckerberg knows what he’s talking about when he unveils this kind of chart. But what other things can be shared by the public if this number is going to continue to rise? It seems like we’ve hit our maximum capacity for cute videos of kittens...although that may be a lie. Actually, it’s definitely a lie. Those videos aren’t going anywhere. What else is out there for us to share, if this graph is going to keep up?

Things to Share

One thing that could be interesting to share is dining. How about a way to share what place a person went to eat that day? It’d be interesting to be able to share a place someone ate at, and be able to provide information and possibly discounts for his or her friends that clicked on the shared restaurant. A greater integration of Foursquare into Facebook could be of use too. Being able to track on Facebook where you are (with the help of Foursquare and Google Earth) could be the next wave of shared data.

Conclusion

As I think about the future of sharing things on Facebook, or anywhere else, I have to rack my brain. There just aren’t many things that I do on an average day that people don’t already share. People already take pictures of what they do and post them. People already use Foursquare to “check in” wherever they are. Moods, thoughts, ideas, and recollections: they all have already been shared. Outside of those few things above, I just can’t think of too may more ways for us to share what we do in our lives with the rest of the world. I look forward to being proven wrong.