Helpless Internet paradox

Overload! was a bit of an overload. But, in reading that particular article it dawned on me how the Internet really is leaking into every aspect of our lives. Not only did I refer to Blackboard to check our homework, but then I read the article (online), took notes on the article (on Word) and logged into my blogger account to complete this homework assignment (online). The entire sphere of my homework was related somehow to my computer. And now my eyes hurt!

Reading the article gave me a sense of helplessness. Nordenson seems to say that we are less likely to learn the news information presented to us because we are always multi-tasking, and it is nearly impossible to staple something to memory without giving it attention. I feel helpless because we can't turn back the floods of information being created daily; we can only try and sift through it with our dwindling attention spans but probably end up clicking Ctrl + T and opening a new tab to check our e-mail.

Another point that I felt rang true was when Nordenson alluded to Michael X. Delli Carpini, dean of the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania,

“'In the 1960s, if you wanted to watch television you were going to
watch news. And today you can avoid news. So choice can be a mixed
blessing.'”

I lived in Costa Rica for four months last year and was witness to the drastic difference in knowledge that the Costa Rican ("ticos") students my age had regarding politics and worldy affairs. I can only now think to relate this to their lack of HBO, Showtime, and other non-news related television channels. The tico students I met and hung out with would every night before dinner gather in the living room, and flip it to the same news station for the 5 o'clock newscast. As a trickle effect to their up-to-date news knowledge, their conversations reflected this.

The ticos had to actively pursue news by watching the newscast, in an entertaining way - with friends around the TV. But for American kids, presented with way too many options, we choose to avoid spending one hour devoted to a compiled newscast and instead devote that hour to finding our own news online, "that interests us", and end up retaining next to nothing.

This refers back to the paradox Nordenson spoke about at the beginning of Overload! Young consumers want more in-depth news, but we fail at getting it ourselves. We become fatigued when dealing with the dozens of Google results after searching "Blind Pig fire" and instead learn about the details from people's Facebook statuses.