Pundustry, Or A Day In The Salt Mines Of Information Overload
Gene Weingarten of the Washington Post tried an experiment recently. He spent 24 hours in a room surrounded by televisions, two radios and a laptop set up to cycle through a selection of blogs and news sources. It was all in the interest of science - to see what living in total information overload was like. Welcome to the blogosphere, Gene.
THE CRUDDIEST MOMENT OF THE CRAPPIEST DAY OF MY LIFE ON EARTH happened as I found myself watching five televisions simultaneously, each containing a different political pundit opining on the same subject. When I looked down toward my computer screen to see what the bloggers were saying about it, I noticed that a button on my shirt had come undone.
There I was, literally contemplating my own navel. But I didn't even crack a smile because, in the relentless drone of insipid opinion, irony no longer held any meaning.
I knew then that this whole thing had been a very poor idea, one from which I would not return undamaged. Because the clock on the wall said I still had 14 hours to go.
Weingarten takes more than a few swipes at the folks who practice surfing in this sea of information that beats mercilessly these days. But there is a certain amount of truth in his dark humor about the overload of news, semi-news, punditry and analysis (both paid and freelance) that inundates us these days. Especially those of us who choose to do this on a daily basis. There is so much out there to read and absorb and talk about. It is, indeed, like drinking from a fire hose. I'll let you read the long piece and figure out where the title of this post comes from.
Just doing my bit, Gene. Even if you didn't mention the Crabitat in all your blog name dropping!
Blogosphere, Media, News | Gaius Friday, 21 March , 2008
By Maggie, Friday, 21 March , 2008 @ 9:48 pm
I’m a "junkie" … but THAT … I’d be begging for a cyanide capsule by the 24th …
Bet waterboarding didn’t seem like such a bad concept after that.
By syn, Saturday, 22 March , 2008 @ 6:06 am
I doubt Weingarten’s grandfather had to worry about journalists(print or TV) who believed their purpose in life was, as Dan Rather once said in the mid 1970’s, to change the world instead of objective reporting.
As one who, prior to 9/11 didn’t pay much attention to news accept for what I read in the NY Times or watched on CNN, my guess as to why people have become information junkies is perhaps a result of horrible standards in journalism(both print and TV).
Because I no longer trust the Gene Weingartens of the world I how have to spend my time doing his job, I guess this makes me a junkie as well however I rather be a junkie than a TV news watcher or a NY TImes reader; I look upon them as poor things who have no idea how much information they’re not being told.
Condescending I am however at least I’m not a journallist who believes their purpose is to change the world. One observation about blogging (I mean the upstanding ones) compared to TV and print is that if a blogger doesn’t survive the fact-check they don’t last very long in the blogoshere.
By Quilly Mammoth, Saturday, 22 March , 2008 @ 7:24 am
The Surf analogy is really put into prospective, though Weingarten misses it, You have to know when to paddle your board to shore.
By Maggie, Saturday, 22 March , 2008 @ 7:58 am
@syn -
" to change the world" …
yep, that’s where they (journalists/reporters/news media) went horribly wrong … In order to "change" something you need to become part of that something. They’re NOT supposed to be part of the story. They’re supposed to provide the facts and details to the public about the story … NOT influence the story or the viewer.
@Q.M. -
"You have to know when to paddle your board to shore."
Exactly!
By feeblemind, Saturday, 22 March , 2008 @ 9:06 am
If Weingarten doesn’t like the overload, perhaps he should do his part and change professions. Shoveling horse manure at a local stable might be a good alternative for him. Look, nobody runs a dozen TVs and radios and the internet at the same time. That was a silly stunt. I would speculate that on a subconcious level he resents and feels threatened by the fact that there are people out there that are much better at his job than he is and he resents it and feels threatened by it. Plus, those people often do it for free.