In my last email newsletter, I included a brief discussion of a book written in the 80s -- the pre-web, mass media era. One of the authors of Manufacturing Consent said that, in that time, information was "there, but it's there only to a fanatic". To get your hands on primary (or even secondary) sources surrounding a topic du jour, it might take hours of research labor. Easier to just "turn on the tube and say, 'it’s probably right'..."

Of course, much of that has changed in the Internet era. Thanks to tools like Wikipedia, Twitter, and Google News, we are now "information fanatics", though fanatics in a very different sense. We find information all around us, and are obsessed with keeping up with the stream. People now talk of "infoglut" and "information overload".

Mitch Kapor once said, "Getting information off the Internet is like taking a drink from a fire hydrant." I find it appropriate that this was actually a variation of an original quote by Jerome Weisner, which was, "Getting an education from MIT is like taking a drink from a fire hose." Notice that the flow of information has shifted -- from a massive research university, MIT, to the Internet.

I also see a connection between the massive flow of information and our personal education. So, too, does the author of Manufacturing Consent, who recently updated his thoughts about information consumption in the web era:

"The Internet is extremely valuable if you know what you’re looking for. [...] If you know what you’re looking for, you have a framework of understanding, which directs you to particular things (and sidelines lots of others). [...] You can’t pursue any kind of inquiry without a relatively clear framework that is directing your search, helping you choose what’s significant, what isn’t, what ought to be put aside, what ought to be pursued, and so on."

He goes on: "You can’t expect someone to become a biologist, say, by giving them access to Harvard University’s Biology library, and saying, “Have at it!” The Internet is the same, except magnified enormously."

Read "Information fanaticism"...