content
Information is collected, aggregated, examined and assimilated into knowledge over time. The skill of using knowledge to make decisions that advance one's objectives in the world, together with the knowledge of which objectives are worthy of pursuit, is wisdom.
Content, in contrast, is a different beast. Unlike information, content cannot be evaluated for its correspondence to reality, nor does it hold any potential truth value. Whereas information can be true, false, or somewhere in between within a given epistemological realm, the category of communication we routinely refer to as content is neither capable of nor intended to convey any meaningful signal which might be discerned from noise. It is neither here nor there.
Information is meant to be analyzed, discussed, corroborated; content is meant to be consumed. Information is gathered; content is generated. Information can tell us something about the world; content can only tell us something about its promoter. As we plunge deeper into a world where we rely on machines to generate content and other machines to promote it, the ability to discern information from content will continue to increase in value.
The next time you receive a recommendation from a friend or an algorithm to read a Tweet, or watch a YouTube clip, or listen to a podcast, ask yourself: is this content or information?