The Rabid Grammarian

Question of The Week: Does the Internet really make us more informed?

I've often found myself asking "in an an age with so much information available, how is it that so many continue to be so ignorant of basic facts?" This is a greater issue than simple access to information. Even with adequate access, people choose to remain ignorant or simply do not know the facts on basic issues.

In this day of information it is far easier to suffer from information overload than to be well-informed. There is still the bias that if it is accessible on the Internet that it is true when in fact most of the easily accessible information isn't accurate or isn't information. It's often opinion, rhetoric, propaganda or advertisement. Unfortunately, because our educational system has suffered such deep cuts in quality, many are unable to discern the difference between the truth and other forms of media.

The inability to think critically and analyze to discern the difference between true information and the rest is crippling us in the information age. The Internet certainly gives us access to information but like any resource it is up to the user to wade through the mire to the verified truth.

The Internet age also makes it all too easy for people to trust one source as truth without confirmation from a separate independent source. Even more challenging is finding sources that don't refer back to each other. The Internet is a very incestuous source of information.
So does the Internet make us more informed? Only in the hands of an intelligent and adept user. In the hands of the uneducated, voluntarily ignorant, or lazy the Internet only serves to perpetuate whatever the user chooses to believe rather than what is actually and demonstrably true.

Once again I find myself on a soapbox calling for more effective education and comprehensive education reform. It is only when we give people the power to access and analyze information that it is truly useful.