My parents did not have so much information thrown at them - as is being done by the media these days. Their information needs were also meager. What all they needed to know to live comfortably was the nearest school for their children, the nearest doctor and the nearest grocery store. A few other services were delivered at home. Life was very simple in those days.
But the times have changed. Life is becoming increasingly more and more complex every day. One income is not sufficient any more for comfortable living. Two income families have come to stay. Time has become extremely important for both husband and wife. This has brought in its wake many changes in life styles.
The need for information also changed with the times. We are seeing, with a monotonous regularity, rapid technological changes, cycles of boom and recession, rising and falling inflation rates - all of them and many more such parameters, having a direct impact on our day to day living.
This is the modern Hitech and IT age - and you are literally battered with information. It is believed that information is growing in geometric proportion. We do not even know how much of it is factual and to be believed - and how much of it is spin and therefore, is irrelevant to our needs. The sheer volume of it, however, is mind-boggling.
There is a large and profitable Information Technology industry growing rapidly, which is constantly churning out new information and throwing it at us. In the USA alone, there are 1400 TV stations, several hundred newspapers and magazines. Some of these newspapers have about 100 pages on week days and about 300 pages in their Sunday editions. There are several hundred cable and long distance telephone companies. To cap it all, there is, of course, the Internet. All of them are constantly trying to literally drown us in information.
We are confused most of the time; perhaps even worried that we may miss something vital. There is also a lurking suspicion in our minds that we are being deliberately conned by sharp operators. We do not know any more what to believe - and what not to believe.
Information is not knowledge. It has to be processed - if it has to become knowledge. You have to sift through the information, analyze it, establish its objectivity, classify what is relevant to your needs and store the classified information in a proper place for timely and easy retrieval for it to become useful knowledge. This processed information has also to be updated continually.
The next thought is about ‘Innovation through Technology’
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