Information Addicts

Unlike my usual posts, I have no sources to link. This is purely an editorial rant. It ends up here because it least fits the content of my other pages. Enjoy.

Americans are addicted to information. I don't think much doubt can be placed in this claim. Look back to September 11, for example. For entire week after the attacks, American society shut down as it requested details about what had just happened. Out of the cable and broadcast stations available to me at that time, I counted 17 dedicated to 9/11 coverage. After a few days or that first week, many returned to regular broadcasting, but they provided periodic updates. The daily news was expected to provide something new. For months, we could follow the updates on the situation regarding Zacarias Moussaoui. Then we had the creation of the Department of Homeland Security and investigations by the 9/11 Commission of the CIA and FBI.

September 11 is just one example of information addiction (and perhaps information overload). To name some others: Michael Jackson (not just the recent trial), Scott Peterson, the Olympic Park bomber, the Christmas tsunami, Al-Qaeda (and everything related to them) and Osama bin Ladin. We have our daily reports from Iraq and Afghanistan with the latest car bombs, suicide bombers, and death tolls. Most recently, we can add Hurricane Katrina to the list.

The only reason my list does not extend back beyond 2000 is that new information keeps pushing out the old. It's a wonder I can remember anything with all the data thrown at me. However, this addiction did not miraculously appear with the turn of the millennium. We had Y2K preparations, OJ Simpson, the Oklahoma City bombing, and the Persian Gulf War getting us through the '90s. I was too young to personally know of the information deluge prior to this.

For as much as I claim that individual Americans have this unstoppable pursuit of more and newer information, I wonder if some of the blame for this addiction should be placed on the media. Consider the early 1900's when newsprint was the main source of information (possibly some radio as well). I can easily hear people saying, "Wow, look at what happened. I'm content with the content provided by this source. They are reliable, and this is probably all I need to know." As information sources increased (TV, cable TV, and the Internet), subsequent generations were amazed by the breadth of coverage that could be provided. All of it added up to our current situation. We became addicted to their reporting schemes. We expect the reporters to be in that hurricane or on the battlefield, and we take the massive, widespread coverage for granted. To reach new viewers, each media source now wants to provide that unique angle on a given story, and because of our addiction, we tune in. They have us wanting more (at 5, 6, and 10).

Another portion of blame can be put on our expanding global economy. In the Middle Ages, serfs could care less about the situation at a neighboring castle. They only needed to know the weather, how much the lord planned to tax them, and who died recently (i.e. in the last month). Then came the Renaissance, an Awakening to many things, one being the globe. Some people ran away to the New World, but they still had ties to Europe (e.g. King George taxing the colonies). However, global news meant little to most people for much of history. That is a major change of the last century. More people invest in foreign stocks and currencies. More businesses outsource work to nations with cheaper labor. More people travel the world. With such an interconnected economic system, a ripple in one area can cause waves in the rest. To protect ourselves from economic downfall, we need as much information as we can obtain about events in other places on the globe. As with the media factor, this addiction built slowly. Now we can't survive without updates about every foreign land.

It's a small world, they say. As we become more connected to other parts of the globe, it gets smaller. However, we can easily be overwhelmed with just the news in our own neighborhood. Somehow, though, people want to cram more information about their state, nation, and world, into their tiny brains. We wonder why society does not hold the same sense of community it once had. Perhaps I've stumbled onto a reason for such social distance. In efforts to include everyone, we cannot know each individual as well as we should. And it's all because we are information addicts.