When the Numbers Crunch Us

We live in an age of information. In 10 point font you can fit roughly 133,251 pages of single spaced text into one gigabyte of memory. That's about 445 books at 300 pages per book. Most laptops come with at least a five hundred gigabyte hard-drive already installed. Desktops often come with a terabyte or two terabytes of hard-drive space (1024 gigs in one terabyte). Petabyte hard-drives (1024 terabytes) are expected to become common for consumer use in less than a decade. The math is quite simply astounding. Suffice it to say that a million books could easily fit in the palm of your hand in a 2 terabyte hard-drive. Beyond the physical storage directly available to the average consumer, the Internet itself has revolutionized the way humans make decisions and gather knowledge, as well as how we access the technology available. A Wikipedia article claims that in 2007 the world had the technological capacity to store 295 exabytes (295 billion gigabytes) of information, and the Internet is what enables the average human being to access all the information stored therein. The question then becomes clear, what in the world are humans doing with this vast amount of information available at our fingertips? The simple answer is, we stare at Facebook for hours and hours on end.

That’s understandable though, isn't there such a thing as information overload? Well actually, no there isn’t, or at least it’s not that big of a deal according to several different sets of research done by the PEW Institute. In Sorting out information technology users, published in 2007, PEW researchers found that, “the Connected but Hassled [group] who comprise 10% of the population – expresses worries about information overload and doesn’t see ICTs helping their personal productivity.” The other nine groups of ICT (Information and Communication Technology) users defined by the research showed no concern over the possibility of information overload. If most people don’t feel that they’re suffering from information overload, then what other reasons could there be for Americans spending so much time involved in social networking or media streaming websites instead of pursuing the knowledge that is readily available  in order to learn and improve themselves? Social pressure, a paradigm shift in the practice of community, or are we just natural procrastinators? In the same article, research shows that while 85% of Americans are connected to the Internet, only 8% of them are really utilizing the technology to its full potential.

Personal Computers first started showing up on the market in the late 70’s and started a drastic shift in the availability and cost of information. This led to rapid growth in the accessibility of technology and information in general, as well as through the Internet and a tendency towards world communication and information sharing (Wikipedia). Physical books are being supplemented with electronic texts and multimedia content. Dennis E. Baron writes that the vast majority of Americans have accepted typing on computers as the most effective form of writing, and that more and more Americans are shifting their reading habits from physical print to their computer screens (11). Educational games and videos are being created all the time for the benefit of the American youth as well as adults. But the common trend seems to be putting more space in our computers in order to satiate our need for instantly available media like videos and music that often don’t have a great deal of educational value. Sure, it's nice to be able to play a time consuming game while we wait for a doctor's appointment or a ride, but what's the actual value of it? We use the phrase "time consuming' constantly in reference to traffic jams or a project at work, but we don't even seem to notice when we spend three hours looking at our friend's Facebook updates or silly Youtube videos. In some ways the information of text can be condensed when put into a video/audio format, but how many times have you walked out of a movie theatre thinking, “Boy, what a waste of time.” Multimedia for the purpose of entertainment has its merits. Movies and music are valuable artistically, and humans do need rest and relaxation. It’s just important to realize that a world obsessed with entertainment won’t have room for progress.

 The PEW research center and many other sources have noticed that the Internet is quickly taking the place of TV in the home. In The Future of the Internet I, experts at the PEW research center predict that by 2014, all media will be streamed via the Internet. Americans seem to have a habit of replacing one technology with another in order to keep themselves entertained but aren’t we abusing the technology? It seems like Americans are choosing to do what’s easy. Instead of going out to the park to toss a football with the kids we’re sitting at home watching other people do it.

            So what does the future hold? Technological advances are moving forward at a rate higher than any other time in known human history. Gerald S. Hawkins talks about “mindsteps” or paradigm shifts which are accelerating in frequency. Technology keeps growing and information becomes more and more readily available. Many futurists seem to believe that technology will continue accelerating at an exponential rate possibly leading to a Technological Singularity, or “the emergence of greater-than-human intelligence through technological means” (Wikipedia) which would begin a new age in civilization beyond anything we’re capable of imagining. Current literature and movies seem to predict that technology will become so powerful or will go wrong in some way that eliminates life as we know it through an apocalyptic happening of some sort. As of this moment we have 988 years to find out as most futurists assume these world changing events will occur in this millennium. 

Works Cited

Baron, Dennis. A Better Pencil. 1. New York: Oxford University Press, 2009. Web. 8 Mar. 2012. .

Horrigan, John. “Sorting out information technology users”. Pew Internet & American Life Project, May 6, 2007. Web. 8 Mar. 2012. <http://pewinternet.org/Press-Releases/2007/Sorting-out-information-technology-users.aspx>.

Rainie, Lee, Fox, Sussanah, Anderson, Janna. “The Future of the Internet I”. Pew Internet & American Life Project, January 9, 2005. Web. 8 Mar. 2012. <http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2005/The-Future-of-the-Internet/05-Predictions-and-Reactions/13-Personal-entertainment.aspx>.

Wikipedia Contributors. "Exabyte." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 7 Mar. 2012. Web. 8 Mar. 2012.

Wikipedia Contributors. “Technological Singularity.” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 5 Mar. 2012. Web. 8 Mar. 2012.