information gap.

every once in a while, you hear someone complaining about how the internet has led to "information overload." the usual accusations follow: that it offers people so much choice, they are overwhelmed. paul virilio described the computer as a "window" on the world, changing our concept of the day to a 24-hour one, eliminating night, and therefore rest and sleep.

i am beginning to think that these conclusions are the result of the gap between a generation watching the world change, and a generation experiencing the world change. one is passive, watching as through a window. the other is actively involved, both absorbing the changes and exciting new ones themselves. a tight sub-set of the younger generation is what we used to call "generation y": the group in between gen x and the (*shudder*) "millenials." this is the group that participated in the mainstream rise of the internet, that still remembers when internet chat meant IRC, and who pioneered the use of napster. these are the kids that dropped out of college to make it rich in the dot-coms, or dreamt of doing so. we also remember a nastier internet and tend not to fall for phishing scams or put our cellphone numbers in our IM away messages.

these people do not suffer information overload. we came to it at a mature enough age to be able to filter it, but also to appreciate the potential it offers. we have people on our IM lists from countries all over the world. we follow international news because we are acutely aware that it affects us personally. to be the ignorant, uninformed, britney-spears-consuming american is an anathema. we are not consumers at all, in fact. we are customers, fully cognizant of the concept of comparison shopping, the existence of amazon, edmunds, and pricewatch-type sites, for everything from video game consoles to travel. our music comes from europe, our entertainment comes from japan. we have opinions, and are expected by our peers to be able to discuss reasonably intelligently current events, politics, economics, both foreign and domestic.

the sudden wealth of information available has caused this generation to be, i believe, the most "global" if you will, moreso than the ones before or after it. it is causing a societal shift towards a rational, manageable information addiction (if that's not a contradiction in terms). when your social expectation is to be informed, it's hard to be on information overload.