There are a lot of amazing things about the information and capabilities the internet now places at our fingertips. There is little that a curious mind can't access at a moments notice. You don't even need to be in front of a computer anymore! Phones and tablets and Google Glasses allow us to access the web from virtually anywhere!
The sheer volume of information available has prompted a plethora of tools to help us manage the information we are bombarded with. From news to music, friends to movies, there are websites and web tools that will evaluate what we have read or watched or listened to in the past and tailor our news feed or internet radio stations accordingly.
This is amazingly appealing! No longer do I have to scroll past the latest exploits of Justin Bieber or the dust up in Syria to get to the football scores or the report on the city council meeting. No longer must I suffer through the latest alt- country hit to listen to my favorite dub step tunes. Netflix will even tell me what movie I should watch!
But like so many things, there is a cost to that convenience. A cost that I often worry about being higher than most of us believe.
I worry that we are greatly reducing the opportunity for accidental discoveries. When you read the newspaper, you cannot help but see an article or two about something you never knew about. And if you never knew about it, you probably didn't have it in your pre-programmed news feed that pops up on your screen each morning. When you listen to the radio, you have to listen to a lot of music that you would never have picked. Since traditional radio doesn't have a skip button, you have two choices. Listen to the song or stop listening to the station. Occasionally, one of the tunes strikes your fancy. Occasionally, you will run into an artist, or a genre that you you love but would have never considered listening to previously.
Ultimately, however, I am not worried about people's exposure to music and literature as I am to their awareness of the world. We have seen example after example of the powerful things that happen when the internet opens up the world to a community, a country or a culture. There are wonderful stories of people expanding their horizons and achieving great things despite their age, physical limitations, geography or previous education because of the resources of the internet. We have seen people around the world respond instantly with words of support and donations of dollars, euros, yen and rubles.
It seems ironic then that this same powerful tool that has done so much to expand the world for so many seems to be intent on collapsing it on many of us, all in the name of convenience.
I am not arguing against recommendation lists. I use them regularly. The danger lies in relying on them and them alone to identify what parts of the world you interact with.
Its a wonderful wide world. Don't close the door on it!
Exactly why I subscribe to the NYT's! I read so many articles I wouldn't have selected from the online edition.
ReplyDeleteOn first read I read your line as, "amazingly appalling!" Maybe I was reading between the lines.
I agree that it is not all bad/good. There is much new music on my Pandora feed, which plays music similar to what I like. This also happens on the radio when we listen to a favorite station. I don't even own a radio in the house. All of our home speakers are wired to the computer.
A friend of mine has her own radio show on our college radio station at UIC. It's really good. But I have to listen to it at uicradio.org, then click on the "listen now" button, because it is not actually on the airwaves; the entire station streams from online. College radio, Bill! Is nothing sacred?
Emily, thanks for your comment! It is a confusing world right now. It is so easy to expose yourself to more information/music/writing/etc. and to go deeper into a new interest than ever before. It is also incredibly easy to narrow your world and just expose yourself to one perspective.
ReplyDeleteI feel that one of the reasons we have such polarization these days in our politics is that it is easy for politicians to isolate themselves and just hear voices supporting their point of view.
As for college radio, as one of the operators of a start-up radio station I understand that one of the reasons to be online is in your comment. Fewer and fewer people have radios in their lives. More and more have computers.