The paradox of the Internet …

Never before has so much information been made readily available to so many. 

Yet one of the surprising side effects of the Internet is that it’s making people more ignorant.

Access to all the information known to man doesn’t automatically make anyone more informed.  

The Internet has changed how we do even the most mundane things. Honestly, when was the last time you used a physical phone book?  Or went to the library to look up something? It’s faster, easier and more efficient to just search online. 

People don’t read newspapers much anymore, either. Or watch the news on TV. Or even listen to news-radio stations, except to get the weather and traffic reports. You can get scores, weather, traffic reports, movie times – whatever – in seconds on your smartphone. 

So what’s the problem? 

Most people are so eager to get their narrow answer they aren’t getting any peripheral information. You know, the stuff you might see while you were looking for what you really wanted. 

Stuff like national and local news.  Business news. Weather that’s not here now but is headed your way.  Things that could inform you in a broader sense and give you a wider and more informed perspective.  Things that might be extraordinarily useful at some point, but you’re not seeing. 

The type of information that might make you better equipped to understand what’s happening around you and what it means to you beyond this very moment. 

For the sake of expediency and immediacy, we’re sacrificing potentially important knowledge. 

We’re becoming more ignorant as a society as a result.  In fact, there’s a growing acceptance of ignorance as an admirable trait; almost an article of faith. It’s seen as the result of being “too busy” with “more important things” to be bothered with details. 

Like what?  Updating your status on social media sites? Sending pictures of your food? Taking duck-face selfies?  Viewing cat videos on YouTube?  Seriously … are those more important tasks than knowing what’s happening beyond you and your circle of friends?     

This is especially acute with the younger generations. The so-called Millennials may be the most broad-spectrum ignorant generation we’ve ever created. They have no clue – because they have no interest – in anything that doesn’t affect them personally, right now.  

They are clueless about what’s happening in the world, in this country, or even their own state.  They don’t even know what’s going on in their own backyard.  That’s because when they log on to the greatest assemblage of knowledge the world has ever seen they have blinders on. 

They’re not alone. Witness public polls, or impromptu man-in-the-street interviews. 

I’m not saying that the ordinary Flo and Joe Blow need to be policy wonks, or understand the intricacies of quantitative easing by the Fed, but they should at least know something about the world around them.  Most teenagers and kids in college don’t know much about current events, either – even events that could affect them directly. 

It’s not as if that information is hidden.  If anything there’s a deluge of information out there, readily accessible from any smartphone, tablet or computer with far more detail and background than you’ll find in any TV news story or on the radio. 

There are plenty of news sites with up-to-the-minute reporting and analysis of events here and around the world.  There are informative blogs on almost any subject.

Which brings me back to the paradox of the Internet.   

The Internet has allowed us to find almost everything about practically anything. Search engines evolved to allow a person to pinpoint precisely what they want and find it – which is both a blessing and a contributing factor to our growing ignorance. 

If you’re only interested in knowing when the Second Defenestration of Prague occurred, you can find that in seconds.  But if you don’t take the time to read the surrounding material, you won’t understand why it happened or why it was important.

You can also use this same awesome power to find the latest Grumpy Cat picture.  Or check out the latest posting from your BFF.  It’s up to you. 

The effect of the Internet on young people is open to debate.  Many parents think that because their kids spend a lot of time web surfing, their kids must be learning a great deal in the process.  The truth is that some are, but most aren’t.

One thing’s for certain, it’s fostered an era of ADD among the general population.  That might help to explain why more and more people don’t want to spend the time to understand anything beyond their immediate need – whether that’s directions to a restaurant, a recipe, or how to program their new smartphone.  World, national and local news take a back seat every time.    

Perhaps more problematic is that I think it’s helped create a false expectation that you don’t have to do any work of your own to get to an answer; you just need to know how to use search engines.  It’s like a virtual Cliff’s Notes for those too lazy or disinterested to learn.   

Don’t get me wrong – I love the Internet.  But I’m an information and news junkie.  Maybe because I grew up in an age when you got your day-old news from newspapers and just snippets of news on TV, I think the access to in-depth news and analysis in real time on the Internet is wonderful.    

Yet as much as I love it for myself, it scares me, too.  It worries me that for many its ready access to data out of context can become a substitute for actually learning what you should know.