Last year I wanted to go to a museum with my friends. The night before, I slept at my mom’s place but I found out I had forgotten to bring my phone charger. I texted my friends that I would be at the train platform at our agreed time but I couldn’t be reached by phone due to an empty battery. The next day none of my friends showed up, only for me to later discover that I was at the train platform one hour too early. This instance made me wonder: does constantly having access to data and information all the time make us “smarter”? Or does our reliance on it actually limit our own cognitive abilities?
Are media still media?
The way we perceive contemporary media is sometimes compared to traditional media. We assume that we have access to more information faster and more conveniently, but is it really a fair comparison? In the 1960s, media theorist Marshall McLuhan demonstrated that “media are not just passive channels of information”, besides supplying tools for thought they also shape the way we process our ideas. With the current state and pace of digitalization, this process has been altered significantly. Young people spend less time reading, a trend which has been on the decline for several years. Books don’t give us the same amount of information in a limited time span as the internet, which does not still the younger generation’s hunger for constant information.
The consequences of the further development of the World Brain on society are significant. As demonstrated above, our attention spans are reduced tremendously. Furthermore, algorithms decide the media that is being presented to us, creating a vast divide in society. Information is easily adopted and presented in a certain way confirming to biases and limiting further engagement and debate. One could ask if the World Brain is aiding human development or slowing us down.
Distributing information to the proletariat
On the other hand, the digitalization of knowledge has contributed to remarkable breakthroughs. Courses from American Ivy League universities can be found online, lifting the restrictions on valuable education and reducing its elitist character. People in third-world countries are granted opportunities the old system fails to grant them. The technological advancements have made information more mainstream, which certainly comes with major advantages. When I’m travelling I always notice how I still know some things about a country I had never been to before just because I watched some stupid video about it on YouTube. What I also found out through those experiences, however, is that there are multiple points of view which hold merit, a key characteristic of the humanities that is underrepresented in our usage of processing information.
When accessing information online, I think the most important qualities a person needs to possess are self-awareness and open-mindedness. People need to think twice about the information that is being represented to us, why it is represented to us and why we assume it is credible. I believe we should engage more honestly and deeply with the information the World Brain has to offer. This way it might actually reinforce our cognitive abilities, instead of restricting them.
I guess another aspect of this is the constant accessibility of information. When you read something in a newspaper or book, you’re more aware of the possibility that the information could disappear or become unavailable. However, when you find something online, you tend to assume it will always be accessible. I would theorize that this changes how we store information, possibly making us less inclined to remember it.