New age Technology

So here’s a random thought of the day: Decades ago, you had a few TV channels, a few radio stations, a fraction of the books you have today. There was far less information being shared. And because there was far less information being shared, the barrier to entry for that information/entertainment was particularly high. Only a few things could be shown on TV or be published, so an industry of people were put in place to screen and decide what was worthy of communication and what was not.

As time has gone on, technology has granted more and more people the means to spread far more information. And as the quantity of information that can be shared has gone up, the average quality of it has inevitably gone down -- as the vast majority of the content we’re bombarded with these days, I think we can all agree, is a bunch of bullshit.

Perhaps the perception that people (particularly the younger generations) are becoming dumber, more selfish, more shallow, is merely a byproduct of this process. It’s not that the population is getting shallower, it’s just that all of the shallow and stupid information now has a platform for dissemination, whereas it didn’t before. Previous generations were just as selfish and shallow as ours, it’s just they didn't have the opportunity to make it so public.

It’s the price we pay for these technological advances and greater freedoms. We get more freedom of information and communication. But we’re also burdened with sorting through far more garbage and bullshit than ever before. Just another reason why I think skepticism is more important today than any other time.