Diary #05
Embedded Files
TOO MUCH INFORMATION, NO INFORMATION
TOO MUCH INFORMATION, NO INFORMATION
OLDER ADULTS
More sources and greater speed, but also greater difficulty in distinguishing reliable information.
THE TESTIMONY
THE TESTIMONY
A participant in the Living Library reflects on a change she has observed over the course of her life: "The numerical variety of sources and the speed at which they overlap."
Newspapers, radio and television now coexist with websites, platforms and messaging services. The participant uses different sources: print and online newspapers, television, institutions, associations and personal relationships. When she looks for news about her local area, she also relies on the institutional website and the local newspaper.
Abundance, however, does not always coincide with clarity.
"I don't like the quantity of content and I'm concerned about its uncontrolled and uncritical spread," she writes.
She notes that even while conducting searches on the Internet, she is suggested news she had not searched for: "All websites suggest other news to read, even Google itself when I am NOT looking for news."
Above all, she feels the weight of overlapping interpretations. Her concluding reflection is explicit:
"When a subject is picked up by many media outlets, often from different and sometimes opposing angles, I feel overwhelmed and give up trying to find the truth. I surrender."
This is where her title comes from: "Too much information equals no information."
The participant does not reject new tools. She appreciates how easily she can search for and compare sources, access news from outside her local area and maintain contact with people who live far away. For her, the greatest difficulty is establishing how reliable a piece of information is.
For this reason, she tries to check information, compare newspapers and assess the origin of pages, including by looking at the website's name. She recommends common sense, verification and the benefit of the doubt to young people. And she shows curiosity about a digital practice she would like to learn more about: using Instagram Stories.
Her final advice is brief: "Question things, look for confirmations and also for refutations."
BEYOND THE STORY
— When abundance becomes an obstacle
BEYOND THE STORY
— When abundance becomes an obstacle
The participant's reflection leads us to observe a paradox of our information ecosystem: having more information available does not necessarily mean being able to understand reality better.
The Internet and digital technologies have enormously expanded the possibilities of accessing sources. We can quickly learn what is happening in distant places, read different interpretations and compare perspectives that would have been difficult to access in the past.
At the same time, however, we encounter an increasing amount of content competing for our attention.
Information can reach us through deliberate searches, personal relationships, notifications, advertisements, automatic suggestions and editorial choices. Not everything we encounter has been searched for or requested.
When information becomes abundant, repetitive or contradictory, finding one's bearings can require considerable effort.
This is what is often called information overload: a condition in which the quantity and complexity of content make it more difficult to select, interpret and assess its reliability.
The testimony describes one possible effect of this experience: giving up on further investigation. Not because information is lacking, but because the attempt to establish which information is reliable can become discouraging. This phenomenon also raises an important issue for democratic participation.
To form an opinion on collective decisions, understand a public issue or take part in a discussion, it is not enough to have access to many sources. Tools, skills and conditions that allow us to find our bearings are also needed.
The experience suggests that the value of information depends not only on how much we manage to learn, but also on our ability to pause, compare and remain open to doubt.
A QUESTION FOR YOU
A QUESTION FOR YOU
"How much trust do you have in the media? Would you entrust yourself completely to them?"
Page updated
Report abuse