Last winter I attended a lecture by Susan Greenfield on how the Internet is making us stupid.  This theory is not a new one and is advocated by people like Nicholas Carr in his popular book The Shallows.  As a fervent supporter of all things Web I defended it to the best of my ability to Jitka as we made our way home.

A new book is set to join the pantheon alongside Greenfield and Carr called The (Dis)information Age: The Persistence of Ignorance.  The book is written by Shaheed Nick Mohammed, associate professor of communications at Penn State.  He argues that the assumption that the spread of computer technology is creating a smarter and more tolerant society is more hype than reality.

“We have to rethink some of our most common assumptions about modern life and, specifically, we need to rethink assumptions that the information age will naturally lead to a society that is intelligent and scientifically literate,” he says. “In fact, we may have moved backwards in many respects.”

The basis of his argument is that with the volume of information rising exponentially, we are no longer able to determine the difference between what is fact and what is fiction.  When faced with examples of Internet led progress, such as the Arab Spring, he counters that this is a double edged sword, with the web used just as often to find dissenting voices and squash them.  He also suggests that social networks can just as easily be used to spread propoganda by governments, something no doubt the Iranian government have in mind after news broke recently of plans to shut down access to the full Internet in favour of a state approved walled garden.

I can certainly understand his point of view.  With media companies struggling to adapt to a world where so much information is free, they are increasingly polarised to appeal to a core audience happy to pay for that content.  The line between news reporting and entertainment is increasingly blurred.

“There is so much information out there that companies are trying to get the most attention,” says Mohammed. “This leads to a concession to the grandiose and sensationalization.”

His solution is a simple one, that as individuals and as a society we should simply critique the information before us rather than swallowing it without thinking.  All of which seems a pretty natural response for any right minded individual.  Of course there will always be examples of the Internet being used for ill gain, but for me it has been undoubtably a force for good. 

Whilst the comments earlier this week from Sergey Brin about the damage to the web caused by Facebook and Apple are to be taken with a pinch of salt due to their rivalry, his sentiment that the Web should remain open in the face of attempts by various governments to clamp down on it are spot on.  So far from this openess being a source of concern, I suspect it will instead be something we will only really appreciate when it's no longer there.