I didn’t think I’d be as enthralled as I am by The Verge series This Is My Next, but the central idea and its deft execution are really working for me. This has shifted me into exactly the mindset the series has in mind, a mindset that perhaps I should have had for a while in this age of consumer electronic abundance: tell me what’s the best out there—the best smartphone, the best digital camera, the best whatever—cut down my information overload, my choice fatigue, and I’ll gladly take it from there. Sure, there’s a bunch of tech options this trust I’ve placed in The Verge is filtering out, but as a recent episode nicely sums up,

…the truth is, most of them are garbage.

Coming from a long readership tenure with Engadget, my attitude had previously been “show me everything that’s out there, lay out the whole consumer tech smorgasbord, and I’ll figure out a supremely well-informed decision.

Then along came The Verge, and they know what they’re doing. Strong, selective content, fantastically packaged. I watch their videos just to remind myself what the bar for professional Internet videos should be. I should have realized this earlier, but The Verge isn’t just in the business of reporting on the new culture of consumer technology; they’re really in the business of creating that culture.