I think we have become so used to having the internet and Google right at our finger tips that we forget how amazing it is. I still remember writing a report about dolphins in the third grade. My sources for the report were a giant picture book and the encyclopedia- which I copied practically verbatim.
I heard a statistic yesterday that one issue of The New York Times has more information in it than a person in the 18th century would come across in their entire lifetime.
So is having access to all this information improving our lives? My vote is for yes. What if the encyclopedia entry that I read about dolphins had incorrect information in it? What if it was written by someone who was biased against dolphins because... okay, I can't come up with a reason why anyone would be biased against dolphins! My point is that the more sources of information that you have, the move viewpoints you are given and you, therefore, have the ability to form a more complete picture of a situation or thing. I mean, what if your only source of news came from watching Fox News?
I do think our lives are improved by having access to all this information. I still wonder though, why our lives aren't even better. Part of me believes (or wants to believe) that hate crimes and the like stem from ignorance. People are afraid of people that are different from them. So shouldn't all this information let us learn more about each other and therefore let us see the world from each other's eyes and let us stop being afraid of each other and hating each other? Man, I wish it was that simple.
How did I get from lack of blog ideas to hate crimes??
My point is, Google is amazing. I have a friend who is trying to learn to live more in the moment. I think that is a good idea for all of us. So the next time you Google something- whether it be a recipe, whereabouts and happenings of an ex-boyfriend or information about dolphins- just stop for a second and be thankful for this amazing technology that we have!
One should always heed caution when getting all of their information from one source - even if that source is a search engine. Who knows how objective the results are (e.g., type in 'Obama' and receive only positive results, etc), and unknowingly we might be led into a bias.
ReplyDeleteThe best information is balanced information - regardless of search engine. Google is my favorite too, but see what else is out there every now and again!