For those whose friends are social networking content sharing fiends, the iPad app Flipboard offers a unique "social magazine" format for consuming friends' digital content.
The first time I saw this application, I loved the concept, the interface, and the overall design. The idea of creating a real-time visually pleasing social networking aggregator is a fabulous idea. This is where internet trends are moving: reigning in our over-stimulated brains and taking all of the elements we love about social networking (sharing) and curating them in ways that diminish the overwhelming volume of content.
However, the one caveat lies in the nature of your friends and tweeps updates. If you have a casual Facebook acquaintance who just had a baby, and is constantly posting pictures and updates (and, let's face it, it's getting a little old), you may find this application less useful than someone who's friends are always posting the thoughtful articles that this gentleman in the video is flipping through. For those of you like me, who straddle the line between friends with interesting updates (whether they are tons of photos of a baby of a close friend that I'm actually interested in or compelling articles on social trends) and the "friends" who are in my network for the sake of networking, this application may force us to reconsider whether sifting through the content of the latter group is worth keeping them as friends.
But I digress.
Tracking the success of this application, as well as the ways that users find utility in it, will be a very interesting and telling case study on the blending of new and old media and the future of content curating.