Influentials as information filters

The idea of "influentials" has always fascinated me. It's one of those concepts that, upon learning about it, seems relevant to nearly every aspect of our information-saturated age. Of course, that's probably not quite true, but I think the concept of influentials is particularly relevant to those parts of our lives that require large amounts of detailed information in order to make a decision. Need to know what kind of mp3 player to buy? Well, my boyfriend knows a lot about computers and gadgets, and he loves his iPod, so it's probably a good one. Wondering who to vote for? Your daughter or friend who works in politics and follows the campaigns closely knows a lot about politics and has a lot of the same values as you, so might as well ask her.

In a way, influentials act as human information agreggators, not unlike a search engine. The internet exploded in both complexity and usefulness with the advent of search engines, especially Google, because they were a way to get only the information a web surfer was looking for. The best search engines are those that figure out what pages are relevant and which aren't, and deliver helpful information to the user. Influentials are those people that their friends and family members know that they can go to for useful information about everything from consumer electronics to politics. Influentials must be good at figuring out what information in relevant to the person looking for their advice, and must know the most helpful way to present it. In our information-saturated lives, people who can help us sort through it all play key roles in modern life.