> <i>I strongly believe the contemporary fetish of liking and sharing cheapens the way we consume our information.</i><p>It's not necessary to like, retweet, etc in order to consume the content. If all you want is to click on a link and get to an article, then that's all you have to do.<p>> <i>Don't get me wrong, I do see value in community driven content, but there's also a lot of dirt and sensationalism.</i><p>Then curate the people you follow / subscribe to on your social networks. You have full control over the posts you see on Twitter, for example, especially if you create lists to only include accounts that tweet out new articles for a given blog or newspaper. Works just like an RSS feed, but it's integrated in the social product you use anyway (speaking from my perspective, at least).<p>> <i>This forces me to absorb it all, even though most of their content doesn't go viral. This liberates me from feeling the urge to be connected all the friggin' time, plus more importantly, there is a gold mine of wisdom to be found in the non-controversial content out there.</i><p>Being forced to absorb it all and not miss a post is liberating? I often feel the opposite--that I need to disconnect and just accept I can't read everything on the Internet.