How much information is generated and stored in the world?

The Information Society is evolving at a good pace. From some years back until now a revolution has been taking place regarding understanding and using information, and in relation to this, Internet has played a large role. However in many occasions the information is not as good as we think at first, and we will see later on.

A study published in Science in 2011 sought to quantify the amount of information generated and stored in the world. That year the CEO of Google, Eric Schmidt, claimed that Humanity had created, up to the year 2003, an amount equivalent to 5 Exabytes, adding that this figure, when he said it, was generated in 2 days.

The figures provided by the Science study are truly overwhelming. Some of these include the amount of information generated by humanity up to 2007, estimated at 295 exabytes, increasing in 2011 to 600 exabytes, or a trillion bytes, which is the capacity of a million desktop computers. The study also states that digital technology, due to the constant digitization, clearly dominates over analog technology because since 2007, 99.9% of the information generated is in digital format, or, on the contrary, that only 0.007% of the planet’s information is on paper.

This year, the company DOMO created a new infographic, which it publishes every year, which again contains a lot of interesting data regarding the use of Internet every minute that passes. After the situation experienced this 2020, it is understandable that the figures are monumental, and we can appreciate the magnitudes that exist in terms of content creation and information traffic in the world.

Every minute that passes, the more than 4.5 billion people with Internet access currently estimated to be in the world, send nearly 42 million WhatsApp messages, install 2,704 times the TikTok app, upload 500 hours of video to YouTube, join 319 new followers on Twitter, publish almost 348,000 posts on Instagram and upload more than 147,000 photographs on Facebook.

In a single word….BRUTAL.

We are all constantly creating information. We create information, even if we don´t realize it. The users of social networks such as Twitter, YouTube or Instagram, with their posts. Even when you’re not using social networks, you’re also generating information.

To check this you can go to the wifi and 4G settings of your cell phone and check how many GBs have been ‘spent’ on tasks that have nothing to do with social networks, such as application updates, map downloads, positioning, email, SMS….

As a curiosity and to check the speed at which information is generated, you can consult the page www.worldometers.info, a website with real-time statistics that shows how data is increasing in a very interesting way.

Clearly, with so much information constantly being generated, we need reliable sources to turn to in order to obtain quality data. This is the case of the Fundación MAPFRE Documentation Center, which for more than 30 years has been responsible for the search, acquisition and selection of reliable information to provide the public with quality information on topics such as insurance, risk management, social welfare, the environment and the economy, among others. Its slogan says it all: “Committed to knowledge”.

 

Sources:
https://www.publico.es
http://www.abadiadigital.com
https://www.ticbeat.com
https://www.domo.com