I found this to be among the most interesting books we read, along with Sabertooth Curriculum and Victorian Internet. The author says we’ve been overwhelmed with not just information but poor quality information. Like consuming excess poor quality food, consuming so much poor quality information can have negative health effects. The author suggests several ways that people can increase the quality of information and lessen the amount of information we intake.
With the age of self publishing, anyone can put their thoughts out for everyone to see… and it turns out that not everyone has something worth saying. Worse than that, some people will intentionally put out misinformation to promote their cause. In this world, we need our students to be able to assess information for its quality. We also need students to be able to step away from the constant stream of information so that they can live balanced healthy lives.
Over the weekend, I’ve tried to implement some changes in the way I consume data. Typically, I listen to NPR whenever I am in the car. I’ve already switched to only listening to it on the way to and from work and listening to music the other times. I don’t see this as having a negative effect on being informed of events, as the commute times are their big news hours and will have all the important stories, it just means I’m getting the headlines instead of being flooded in details.
I’ve also reevaluated my Facebook feed. I attempted to “localize” it by removing any politician or organization from out of the DC region with a few exceptions. I’ve excluded groups that are close to my life such as educational pages, being a teacher, and gun control groups, having had people close to me affected by gun violence.
Hey Will! So sorry that you've had to experience anything with gun violence. Like you, after reading The Information Diet, I took a hard look at the information I was consuming and made some changes too. Being in grad school has helped out too (a lot!). I no longer have the time to search endlessly on the Internet or scroll through Facebook. I didn't think to remove any groups that don't really appeal to me anymore. I'm definitely going to do that. Thanks for the idea (:
ReplyDeleteWill, I found myself filtering and limiting the information I receive too. I thought when I started reading that I had a decent filter but after reading more I realized I needed to do more. I started looking at the different sites I visit to see which ones really weren't benefiting me it's been very eye opening.
ReplyDeleteGood ideas! I'll have to try the Facebook thing, too, and stick to local news. I've noticed, too, that I've been looking at the source website before clicking on any Facebook links. If it's not from a website I recognize already as reputable (NY Times, Washington Post, etc.) then I usually keep scrolling.
ReplyDelete