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Infomania and Its
Side-Effects
By Gene Sager
I recently incited a techno battle at the kitchen table
– a duel between my son, armed with his Android phone and his friend, who
was packing an iPhone. I unwittingly provoked the duel by asking what I
thought was a simple question: “Is the General Sherman tree the biggest tree
in the world?” I was curious because we are planning a trip through the
Sequoia National Park. My son sprang into action, typing my question into
his Android; this prompted his friend to speak the question into his iPhone,
claiming this would retrieve the information faster. All of us inched
forward in our chairs: me and my wife, my son, his friend, and his friend’s
eight-year-old sister.
The competition was on and we took sides, counting on
our techno warrior to deliver the information faster than his opponent. The
results came in almost simultaneously, but controversy exploded over whether
the issue was “big by volume” or “big by height.” One phone diverted our
attention to the Hyperion coast redwood, the tallest living tree at 379 feet
tall – taller than a football field is long. Good to know. My wife shouted
out the “real” question: “What is the biggest living thing?” Then came
animated claims about blue whales, rainforests, and mushrooms. My son found
a link to BBC reports about a humongous honey fungus growing in the Blue
Mountains in Oregon. The website included seventy-eight reviews about visits
to see the giant fungus. The
postings ranged from “This mushroom has been on my bucket list for ten
years!” to the old line about the “fungus amungus.”
In a split decision, my son’s Android was declared the
winner, and the envious eight-year-old praised my son’s “disposable” typing
thumbs. A fun and educational time was had by all. I was happy to see
playful bonding dealing with my favorite topics of Nature and the west coast
environment.
The dueling flew by in an hour – a happy hour of
raucous fun. But later that day when things quieted down, I realized there
was something odd about the happy hour. It was about speed, the speed of the
gadgets. It was all about the gadgets and their vast store of information.
Was it the tail wagging the dog? Perhaps we were being jerked about by, or
under the influence of, something called “infomania” – being obsessed with
information technology.
Social media are included under the term “information
technology” and we do acquire information about others through networks like
Facebook. Facebook does help family and friends bond, but the word “friends”
is stretched out of shape to include virtual strangers whom we have met once
or who are related as second cousins twice removed. The content of the
messages is often quirky, and the standing joke is that Instagram pics
typically show “What I had for breakfast.” But the most telling symptom of
this form of infomania is that it is demanding. As a Facebooker, you feel you need to check your page often. When you
don’t check it, you can miss invitations, or you annoy the person who
expected an immediate response to the pic and message they sent you in great
excitement.
When the demands of infomania are multiplied, the
result is a state of constant stress and preoccupation. The day is filled
with Facebooking, Twitter, Google searches, blogs, etc. Together they become
weapons of mass distraction. So attention deficit disorder is not suffered
by just some elementary school children; it is suffered by children of
infomania – children of all ages.
Some aspects of infomania are not so frenetic or
demanding. They are stored, sometimes dressed up, bodies of information on
every topic under the sun. There is even a
Luddite website,
although the
Luddites are an anti-mechanization, anti-technology organization. Today, scholars and experts on various subjects
complain that the internet abounds with misinformation. There are veiled ads
masquerading as “breakthrough knowledge.” Google puts a square with the
letters “AD” by results that are paid for ads, but it is the veiled ads that
plague us. There are also horribly biased mixtures of facts and opinions.
However, misinformation has always been published at home and abroad, has it
not? In past ages, we have had access to misinformation and we have suffered
the consequences. Now, in the age of infomania, access is much quicker and
much easier. We can be misinformed very quickly and very easily.
Not all of the information is false or misleading.
There are other issues about quantity and quality. Among acronyms, TMI (too
much information) fits the infomaniacal culture quite well, and so does RTI
(random and trivial information). Information is presented regardless of its
importance and often because of its entertainment value. Celebrity news is
in this category along with “gee whiz” information, as when the nightly news
reports that the mayor’s daughter swallowed a spoon. Sometimes, I observe
smartphone users looking up a fact just out of idle curiosity. The
eight-year-old participant in the happy hour of dueling now has her own
phone and uses it as a toy for idle amusement. I told her she has early
onset infomania, but she told her parents I said that she has “ninfomania.”
She doesn’t visit us anymore.
In this age of infomania, people who can store amazing
amounts of information in their brains are greatly admired. A “smart person” can give you the names of the four main islands of
Japan, the term used for currency in Morocco, and the given name of Mark
Twain. This is the smartphone model of smarts or intelligence and it reigns
supreme in infomaniacal cultures. But we need to remember that good
judgement in making life decisions depends on the exercise of wisdom, not on
smartphone information storage. If Apple actually produces a wise phone, I
would stand in the line all night for the first sales on release day.
One astute American writer warned us a century ago about
the vulnerability of the mind: “I believe that the mind can be permanently
profaned by the habit of attending to trivial things…” (Henry Thoreau,
Life Without Principle). I suspect that smartphone use pre-empts the exercise
and development of thinking skills. Today, journalists indeed report a
steady decline in “cognitive aptitude” among high school students in the
United States. Their analytic writing skills and critical thinking skills
are sorely lacking, as is discussed in the LA Times, September 10, 2015.
Could it be that use of information technology is subtly or not so subtly
crippling the minds of our young people, so that as smartphones get smarter
and smarter, people get dumber and dumber?
Despite all this, I have faith in the ability of the
dog (you and me) to regain control of its tail (information technology).
When we realize that we have been jerked about by the technology, we take a
step towards a solution. So, I say, with the corny pop tune, we need to be
“looking at the dog in the mirror.”
Gene Sager is Professor of Environmental Ethics at Palomar College in San Marcos, California.
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