Infominderen: Bewuste Informatieconsumptie In Een Tijd Van Overvloed (2011) - Plot & Excerpts
This book has contributed a powerful analogy to my understanding of the world, and I'm happy for that. Beyond the consideration of that analogy, and a few funny anecdotes of peoples' experiences, I think that it exhausted its value quickly.Information is like food: nourishing and satisfying in small to medium quantities, and unhealthy in very large quantities. It should be consumed carefully.The book has gotten me thinking more and more along the lines of diet and self-control as a tonic for the rich world. In many things, we exist in a world of excess, and need to choose carefully what we take, including food and information.I would recommend that others read the first couple of chapters, and leave it at that. There really is no government or private mechanism to regulate the information habits of the average citizen. Clay Johnson believes there should be voluntary dieting of information habits. We're reading to much crap, Johnson says. or rather, we're consuming to much crap from radio, television, and movies. Except, I don't listen to radio anymore and only turn on television to pick something off Netflix occasionally. I think Johnson isn't talkng about me, except he is, because he includes people who junk out on e-mail, Twitter, and, most assuredly, facebook. And how many people read newspapers anymore? At one end of the spectrum Johnson is a technocrat who suggests using technology to get at the facts and avoid all that self-affirmation stuff people get through their favourite information sources. It's not good enough to read lefty sources if you're a lefty. It's not good enough to watch Fox News if you're a righty. We end up just reading and hearing what we already believe and not gaining perspective. I kind of agree with Johnson and I try very hard to accumulate perspective through a variety of online tools, my favourites being Flipboard, Zite and (sorry) facebook. In the old days we used to send our children to school and hope they got educated. Today our schools are behind our children in knowing "what's going on." or even, how to find out what's going on. Really, "school" is an obsolete concept, at least it's obsolete in as a mechanism for giving us perspective. It's still a pretty good place to learn about the solar system, and arithmatic. But perspective? Eh.
What do You think about Infominderen: Bewuste Informatieconsumptie In Een Tijd Van Overvloed (2011)?
This would have been a fine magazine article. There wasn't enough there to turn it into a book.
—Emma
agree with the principles of the book but think that it could’ve been better argued
—Wen
A little redundant and disjointed at the end, but a great read!
—RayChill
