With e-mail, and forwards, and CC’s, links, and blogs, websites, forums, twitter, Facebook, and so many other venues of communication I sometimes wonder how we survived before the internet, or before Google.
So a friend sent me this cartoon the other day
I laughed.
A few days later my husband and I were on our way to visit family for the holidays. This was one of many trips over the weekend and we had already discussed all of the important topics we usually hit on during drive times. Honestly, we were a little bored.
So Alex asks me some completely off the wall question about bees. So we start talking about the theory that hornets get drunk off fermenting fruit which is why they are so aggressive in the fall. So I had heard this, but honestly was it true? So on the highway going 65 miles an hour (or sort of close to that) I look up an article that goes into great depth about insects and alcohol!
But it led us down another conversation. Before the Internet, before Google, people’s knowledge was so much less. Not people as a whole, but individuals. As an individual you had your experiences from your family, if your dad was a doctor, or your mother a chemist you might know a little bit about those subject. The information you learned in school, if you went to a liberal arts school you may have a more varied knowledge base than someone from a vocational school but still, you are limited by what you learned.
If you were curious about a subject completely out of your realm there was very little way for you to learn about it. Books, library’s, newspapers, TV could provide you with some information but it was limited to what was published, or scheduled. Up to date information was impossible to find unless you watched the news and they thought it was important to keep you up to date.
But now… If I want to know how to build a bird house I can go online, if I want to learn yoga I go on-line, if I want a new cookie recipe I go online, if I want to know what’s going on somewhere I go on You Tube and watch it, if I want directions I go online… or use my GPS.
At one point all I would have needed to know about, and keep stored in my brain was who I am, what I do, and what the people close to me did. Everything else was out of easy reach. However now, I know about everything! I don’t know a lot about everything but holy cow if I scanned my brain, the bits of useless information stored in there would be astronomical! I mean really, I know bees can become alcoholics!
So here’s my question, if we only use 10% of our brains, and I am jam-packing that 10% with useless knowledge, where do I store the information that is actually important?
- Is this massive amount of information making us smarter or is it really hurting us?
- There have been studies showing that attention disorders are on a rampage.
- Children don’t know how to NOT be stimulated by the outside.
- Misinformation is rampant.
What do you think? How does has the internet effected us?
Natalie
The internet - So many questions 