Information Overload??

One thing that caught my eye in the readings this past week was the concept of Information Overload...and it got me thinking... Are we putting too much out there on the web?? Are we relying on the web too heavily?? How do we know what we're reading is truly genuine?? As the article from Ruby on Rails discussed, this concept of information overload is truly "the root of all evil".

With all of the information on the web, you and I both know that you can find just about anything. But could that be a problem too?? I found through my research last term on Network Neutrality for my Online Research class that I could spend hours and hours researching and only come up with a handful of really informative websites. Are we filling the web with too much gobbledygook?? When I go researching online I expect what I expect from an encyclopedia. Information that is well thought out, true, and information that can lead me down a path of self discovery...information that will make me want to learn more. But even with very definitive guidelines set, I seem to still come up with material that is off base and completely off topic. This is something that truly frustrates me as a web user.

Sometimes Web 2.0 makes me tired...and makes me wonder what the world would be like without it. There are benefits to the services that Web 2.0 offers - families are able to send video messages to their loved ones overseas fighting...grandparents can see photo albums compiled of their grandchildren and watch them grow up from far away...and people can take educational courses from thousands of miles away from an institution. But all of these things really make you wonder what the world would be like if we didn't have any of this stuff. Would you be able to survive without Web 2.0??