So I’m just browsing the Web, minding my own business, and then I happen to check the feed of my friends’ status updates on Facebook. I see some rather distressing updates like “… is in disbelief” and “… is predicting national depression.” Obviously something really bad is happening, and because all the doom and gloom is coming from my Kiwi friends, I immediately check The New Zealand Herald website expecting to see news of cruise ship sinking, massive explosion, or God forbid, New Zealand’s terrorist attack cherry being popped. But no, the All Blacks have lost the Rugby World Cup (or something like that - I would tell you if I cared enough to actually read about it.)

As you can see from the above screenshot, 11 of the 20 most recent status updates are related to New Zealand’s “national depression.”

Besides the fact that New Zealanders are unhealthily obsessed with really into their sport, I think this little experience is just another small example of how information these days is being spliced and diced, fragmented across an ever-growing number of channels, and increasingly likely to be delivered by digital word of mouth rather than “Big Media.”

Isn’t that just freakin’ cool? I think so!