The Internet: The Greatest Source of Knowledge and Stupidity

No Sense in Denying

The internet is genuinely unprecedented; never before has there existed so much valuable information in one place (at least that's what people say who have never been to libraries). Still it is significant that our capacity to share and move information is now essentially infinite and, given unlikely disaster scenarios, permanent. Indeed without a doubt, information, quickly and obviously exchanged, shall play a key roll in social and economic changes especially in the years to come.

Of course the word information is a purposefully neutral term as used here; for information can be both edifying and demolitionary. Although the encyclopedias, scholarly works, and the academic journals of the world are in the process of being digitized, even more quickly to have been marketed on the internet are the madness and proud ignorance of the greater population.

The internet has provided a safe-haven and a resurgence to dying anti-science and anti-social ideologies ranging from various conspiracy theorists, creationists, flat-earthers, global warming deniers, anti-vaccine movements, numerous cults, and of course blatant financial scams.

When these appealing and emotionally gratifying viewpoints are placed on the same level of cold-headed science, it's no surprise when people follow Caesar's generalization that, "men typically believe whatever they want," and don't let facts get in their way.

As stimulating as it may be to say that children have the most sizable reservoir of knowledge at their finger tips nearly constantly, it's worth reminding ourselves that children can and do spend hours on the internet without coming close to that sacred realm of knowledge.

Organization

Saying there is valuable and veritable information on the internet is fairly useless if that knowledge is like a needle in a haystack. In order for people to truly be intellectually improved by the internet, two problems must be dealt with: first, reliable information must be rationally organized in reliable places, and second, people must have actual incentives to seek out this information rather than happy delusions.

I shall go ahead and say I consider the second issue unsolvable without an exogenous cultural change, thus I shall address exclusively the first.

The internet is no different than a giant library; for hundreds of years, the greatest universities of the world have stored books with learning that vastly exceeds the information taught in any of there own courses. One might ask why a student does not simply read books without charge instead of paying tuition to hear less information. The reason of course is that a professor, in the form of lectures, simplifies and condenses the most pertinent data so the student doesn't need to scourer endless numbers of books to build a reasonable and comprehendable narrative of reality.

Simply stated, humans are limited in their capacity to internalize information, thus an endless library, like the internet, is functionally useless for them without organization and corner-cutting.

There have indeed been valiant efforts to organize the information stored in the internet, perhaps Wikipedia has been by far the most honorable success. The Wikipedia Foundation has a solid institutional framework that which not only is rigorous in checking data, but allows for the addition of new information instantaneously. Naturally newer articles have a tendency to be rough around the edges and several more remote articles have been taken hostage by ideologically charged individual editors, but in general the site does not only logically arrange information, but more importantly it links and maintains the original sources.

Short Attention Spans

Whenever anyone speaks about how great the internet is in supplying children with valuable study-tools I like to bring out the classic question: Where do most people spend more time, JSTOR or Tumblr?

The computer lab of my university is nearly always packed with students most of the midday; getting a seat to finish up some work is consequentially a difficult task. Without needing to say, most students present are not finalizing papers or doing research; like in most others, our university's technology fee goes mostly to allowing students to see their Facebook profiles on larger screens than their iPhones in between classes.

Even if we can manage to organize data for the use of all, it does not follow that all will use it.

Indeed the interconnection with the internet has become somewhat of a hassle to young people; even when they put themselves down to do serious work, they are always under the constant barrage of Twitter updates, IM chat, e-mail notifications and the like all creating potential distractions that frankly prove too much for the momentum of work. With this constant exposure to relentless social media, it should not be of any curiosity that the newest generation has proven itself so poor at performing tasks that require basic levels of attention and concentration.

The saddest part is that teenagers and others who are so intertwined, or better said tied up, by social media and internet life have to jump considerable social huddles to close down their Facebook accounts or change their habits in using the internet. Both children and adults have seen mobile devices shift from tools of productivity, empowerment and independence to devices which constantly chain them to their social circles, employers and other chores. Without proper regulation, their lives have become fully un-segmented and they are constantly held hostage by their remote troubles.

Of course this affects everyone who uses the web, including myself as condescending as I may be. I would have finished this very article 20 minutes earlier had I not lost myself looking up what sounds dogs are said to make in other languages (the answers are here, make your diversion quick).