Clay Johnson begins his look into the information diet with the root of the problem, namely the concept of information obesity. This is made as a distinction from information overload, which Johnson explains in terms of food, as he does many times throughout the book. He states that in the same way we don't blame the abundance of available food for someone being overweight, we shouldn't blame the amount of information available for our poor habits when it comes to taking in that information.
A big part of this Johnson goes into is the way the news has changed over time. Much of the state of modern news has moved away from simply providing facts and has instead moved to providing the same information, only presented differently. When I say "presented differently", I mean phrased to appeal to a certain demographic. It means that news outlets will spin certain events in a way that appeals to their audience in order to keep that same audience invested in their outlet. I go further into detail on the topic of affirmation here.
An important point to make about information obesity, and by extension the information diet, is that the solution is by no means to simply "unplug". When beginning a food diet, no one suggests you to just stop eating (unless they're a very bad dietitian). The solution to better taking in information is to actually consider the information you choose to read and watch. It may involve limiting some of it overall, but the main point is that it is much more important to figure out what is better to take in and how much.
No comments:
Post a Comment