Information Exposure

Today, in the early 21^st century, we suffer from overexposure to information, much like our exposure to other types of pollution. Generally speaking, we also suffer from insufficient ability to deal with all that information. When we gain the necessary skills, the exposure may remain as a positive-only attribute of our lives. Dealing with the information overload was already mentioned as a desired capability of the graduate from a 21^st century school. But the information explosion is such a significant feature in the present and near future, that it warrants an extended discussion.

First, it is interesting to note that the information flood comes in three ways:

1. Active seeking of data - we go looking for information about something of interest to us

2. Passive subjection to data - information pushed at us by media, advertisers, spammers and such, without us asking for it

3. Outgoing information - data about ourselves that circulates out of our control

In the active channel, seeking - or pulling - data is already done mostly on the Internet, which is amazing, considering how little time the Internet has been in existence. Searching for almost anything produces an avalanche of results - millions of them - when we may need just three or so. Dealing with this type of information avalanche requires many interdisciplinary skills.

In the passive channel, data pushing is done mostly by the agents of the attention economy: Those who need our attention to thrive. The news-media throws at us information and images of what's new and shiny, and especially what's horrifying and gory. The drama driven media lures us with emotional triggers and good old voyeurism. The advertising industry, in order to get an idea into our mind, will use beauty, surprise, shock, fear, amusement, wit, captivity, envy, the subconscious and anything else we may find in lists like the seven deadly sins. Also, while surfing, or even while looking for something specific on the Internet, we are exposed to content we never intended to look at: Much sex; much drugs; not much rock and roll.

Outgoing information circulates more and more freely: Medical, financial, location of cell-phone (and us as cell-phone holders), Internet searches, emails, how our house looks from space or from the street, etc. The privacy issues are very disturbing.

What is the problem? What do we need to “deal” with? Well, for starters:

• Irrelevant information - mountains of it

• Unreliable information - lies, campaigns, half-truths, rumors, expressions of ignorance, errors, …

• Incomplete information - That's even worse than false information – “We may be facing an outbreak of a disease. Details at eleven.”

• Improper content - if we judge it as such: Pornography, violence, hatred, aggrandizing “improper” behavior, etc. Many people classify some content as improper at least for children

• Technically dangerous content: viruses etc. In the Internet, we are personally exposed to types of evil for which we used to need frightening legends: People who make an effort to hurt others, just for the fun of it

• Dangerous liaisons: Con artists, pedophiles, abusive forums, etc.

• Privacy - are we comfortable having our private life being public?

To successfully deal with dangerous liaisons and with privacy issues, we need people-skills, critical thinking, and for young children - some clear rules, like: “Thou shalt not give personal information to anyone without consulting your parents.” But this issue is too far removed from the main subjects of this blog.

Active seeking of data, and estimating the reliability and completeness of data, involve many interwoven technical skills, that can be acquired at school. They are worthy of their own discussion.

For the passive data exposure, the relevance test can be expressed by questions like "Does this affect my life?" "Do I need to know this?" "Do I care?" "Is the best thing I can do with my time right now, to watch/listen/subject myself to this?". As a rule, if data is being pushed my way, it means someone has an interest in my accepting it. It would be a coincidence if I also had an interest in accepting it. So that type of data may be considered irrelevant, unless proven otherwise. The news-fact that a plane crashed halfway across the world, killing all passengers, is horrible, but it does not affect the lives of most of us. There is really very little reason to care about the latest drunk-driving indictment of a celebrity. And bearing in mind that most of us have less than 100 years to live, there are probably many better things to do than to listen to an ad for a product we don't need. Often, it is very easy to see that data is irrelevant to us. The key skill here is the ability to ignore harmful information - if we judge it as harmful by taking up precious attention for irrelevant trivialities. For many of us, it is very difficult to ignore a moving picture, or a deliciously terrible story. The related key habit is the tendency to use the aforementioned skill, and ignore the irrelevant information. A few hundred years ago, this was probably not such a big problem: One could cooperate with gossipers, or not. Either way, what used to be at stake are a few moral issues (way outside the consensus) and a few minutes. These days, we can easily consume a significant amount of time paying attention to irrelevant information from radio, TV and Internet, in addition to good old personally exchanged gossip. It can easily be a few hours a day.

The skill and habit of ignoring harmful information is also exactly what we need to develop in order to deal with improper content. Note that these skills are morality-neutral and can remain within the consensus. The decision of what is proper and what improper, is a moral decision - outside the consensus - and may remain outside the school.