Infotopia

A new study reported that Americans are getting just as much news from TV/radio as we did 20 years ago (57 minutes/day) and now also get 13 minutes via the Internet. So in theory we should be more informed.


But when you look at the mix of what we watch/listen to, that explains the amazing truths in books like "The Myth of the Rational Voter" etc. We know what Paris Hilton and Justin Bieber are doing.

It's like what many researchers have predicted about the interaction between confirmation bias and the variety that is available on the Internet. We have the ability to go online and either get high quality news from multiple perspectives so we can evaluate the evidence on various issues and decide for ourselves what is true (e.g. climate change) or what policies are best (e.g. taxes). But we don't. We go where we will get the comforting feeling of someone agreeing with us.


I suspect that few of us understand what the implications of this are on the future of our society. Do any of us know what effects the Turkish approval of their new Constitutional amendments will have on world peace? Or of the possible leadership challenge last week to Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan?