Und Guest Post

So, surprise surprise, I'm drunk again.  St. Patrick's day and all that.  I mentioned guest posts a while ago, and Mark was kind enough to roll one out for me.  To try and stall out my own inability to rock some shit.  So he rocked some shit, in his awesome, British way (btw, Mark, I do not understand Hugh Laurie.  Your British comedy confuses me. I like my comedy like I like my women: black, but like a white black.  Like Donald Glover).  So, I gave him a choice of topics, which included his opinion on the influx of technology and it's impact on the human condition, and whether this access to so much information has positive or negative connotations.  So let's see him rock it.

In the last ten years especially, and for some time before then, the rise of information available to the general public has grown exponentially. What has also grown is how easy this information is to access. Ever since the advent of wireless technology and faster and faster internet speeds and computers the amount of information at our fingertips has become very accessible. We also have so called smart phones and iPods and now even handheld gaming devices have wireless and internet capability. The world is, to a degree, really at our fingertips.

The question we must ask ourselves is this though; Is this a good thing? Like most things it is and it is not. To a degree yes it is. There is some information that we need to know, that we need to be aware of. The rise of the internet group Anonymous has been very useful in this regard. Thanks to the internet they are making things people don't want the public to know general information. They are giving knowledge freely of topics people need to be made aware of. Google and Wikipedia are good for this too, and there are several different “wikis” for several different topics. Such as certain television shows and even for genres of music. Google and Wikipedia offer information free and simply for everyone who has an internet connection. Wikileaks is another good example, they are also providing information we need to be made aware of. The rise of free and readily accessible information can be very useful in the regards that it can keep people in positions of power on their toes. They are less likely to be corrupt if they know that sooner or later, they are going to be caught out. This is only good though of the people are willing to act, but that is another topic entirely. Knowledge is always good, knowledge truly is power, and free and readily accessible knowledge can only be a good thing.

Right?

Wrong.

There is a dark side to all this information. One of the main ones that people are aware of is Wikipedia. Even though is does a lot of good by offering so much information so easily, it is also wrong in places. It is typically good as a source, but there are parts here and there that just aren't true, and you can be lead to believe something that is not true. Google has it's downsides too. It is, in some way or form, censored. This is understandable, but censored information is hardly “free”. Another problem is that with so much readily available to them, people have trouble retaining the information. People are also having difficulty becoming accustomed to large amounts of information, such as books. Reading is a precious gift and so are books. People are also choosing to access the wrong kinds of information. They are far more interested in menial things such as who is having sex with who and what so called “celebrity” is taking cocaine this time.

Really, you get out of the internet and it's free information what you put in to it. Different people are interested in different things. Your mission, whether you choose to accept it or not, is to get informed on the real issues, the real problems, and to act on them, and to not rely on the internet for your information. Learn for yourself, retain the information, keep it handy, and keep it close.

You never know what tomorrow will bring.

Pretty baller, huh?