Overmation Neglect

While scanning my daily Upod digest yesterday, I spotted a message sharing this stirring quotation: "We systematically overestimate the value of access to information & underestimate the value of access to each other." - Clay Shirky at SXSW 2011. Who is this Shirky fellow, you ask? And why does he have the privilege of making such astute, honest and perceptive statements? The Internet's effect on society is his bailiwick, that's why. Check out his creds here. 

Quilled Fail Whale by @allthingspaper

I read over his remark several times, each time agreeing with it more, despite a lack of context. 

A limitless amount of information is at our calloused fingertips (and carpal tunneled wrists). Past generations referred to more limited but perhaps higher quality sources of information, like encyclopedias (remember those?!) and people (remember them?!?!). If I want to learn something, I grab my MacBook, iPhone or sometimes iPad and ask Google. Google is a noun and also a verb. "Google it." Voila! Thousands of results! But which ones contain accurate information? Which ones can I trust? With so much animosity buzzing around so-called content farms these days, I'm beginning to raise an eyebrow on what I read on my screens. Yet when I open up a book or magazine, I trust that information. There is hardly a shred of doubt in my mind that the world's greatest editor hasn't fact-checked the information multiple times. The sources in those publications are surely legit. And of course I trust accredited information sites alike. 

What is Shirky really commenting on when he says "access to each other?" Should we confide in our neighbors more often? Maybe we should listen more intently during conversations? Perhaps when my mother, who's been a nurse for thirty-five years, suggests a remedy, I should obey. Maybe he's more so referring to our neglect of the people in our lives. Our loved one walks in the door after a long, draining day of being an adult, and we barely look up from our electronic world to greet. I am absolutely guilty of excess QT with the laptop and not enough with the BF.

So tonight, my friends, unplug and snuggle up next to the PEOPLE in your lives. I promise you will  meet not a fail whale but open arms.

*Note: I experienced an instance today (4/3/11) where I overestimated Google and underestimated a person. Seated at a breakfast joint in Running Springs, we wondered what the "adobada" sauce was. Instead of asking our waitress, I reached for my iPhone. Tsk-tsk.