I saw this video a couple years ago and found it to be an interesting analysis about information technology. Some of the things that stuck out the most were how a weeks worth of New York Times contains more info than some people saw in their lifetime. Or how it took Facebook a mere two years to reach an audience of fifty million. Information is being created on an exponential level, and at the rate it is being spread is just as fast. What we must consider is the quality of that information. We have no doubt benefited from our creation of new information technologies, and have evolved to a point to where we are more aware of the world around us. However, there are few who would say that all of the information created is beneficial to society. That last statement was largely ignored for a large portion of history. One, because this type of information has always existed throughout history. The more important reason however, would have to deal with the fact that this lesser information didn't spread on the scale it does today. As Shirky pointed out in his book, the gatekeepers of information is shifting from the professional to the amateur.
I saw this video a couple years ago and found it to be an interesting analysis about information technology. Some of the things that stuck out the most were how a weeks worth of New York Times contains more info than some people saw in their lifetime. Or how it took Facebook a mere two years to reach an audience of fifty million. Information is being created on an exponential level, and at the rate it is being spread is just as fast. What we must consider is the quality of that information. We have no doubt benefited from our creation of new information technologies, and have evolved to a point to where we are more aware of the world around us. However, there are few who would say that all of the information created is beneficial to society. That last statement was largely ignored for a large portion of history. One, because this type of information has always existed throughout history. The more important reason however, would have to deal with the fact that this lesser information didn't spread on the scale it does today. As Shirky pointed out in his book, the gatekeepers of information is shifting from the professional to the amateur.
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