Sunday, July 12, 2009

Internet, Life and the Information Age

Many companies have made millions on the internet and communication throughout the world and the masses have responded. We are well beyond the early adopter phase in 2009 where we waste hours upon hours of time jumping on the internet, as is so easy today, and saying, “Sweet, I’m connected! Now what?” Indeed
We are connected to the internet… but what is this…what are we actually connecting to? Who? And why? We are connected with our computer to other computer’s…our laptop with the Black Labrador desktop background is connected to some laptop with a Transformer’s background…one personality to another. Through websites, emails, blogs, and online social networks we have found that we can easily connect to those who are physically far away…or can we? Are we just connecting ourselves to a published picture of them? An ideal we are meant to believe? How often are we actually speaking, having conversations, interacting? Is it just a bunch of shows to see who is watching? Who can build the biggest tower of Babel? Who can claim to have the most friends and say, “Look I’m the most bad-ass of all the people that think they are bad-ass”

It had been a novelty to find out information. You were somebody when you knew everybody (or more importantly everybody knew you) or everything about some subject. But the mindset has changed in what we are calling the Information Age. We say “Look…I don’t need to know all the answers, all I need is to know how to find the answers.” I can Google anything in the world and get an answer. But is it the right answer? Who is behind the answer? Could you prove it yourself? No one cares to ask. With this mindset the populous looses focus on gaining any particular skills, in developing knowledge, in thinking originally without being spoon-fed Wikipedia answers, Google excerpts, and YouTube clips.

A day will come when information will not govern life, but just be a part of it again; a day when we won’t sit aimlessly in front of a blinking cursor in the blindingly white Google search box. What do I want to search for? What am I looking for? What one bit of infinite knowledge do I want spoon-fed to me today? Stop Blinking at me! Just tell me something! Not just anything…something interesting!
So we turn to news media, friend updates, sports, and movies