This is the information age [damn it]
I was recently asked what to do about the fact that our phone book was already packed during a moving day. For context, my girlfriend and I were moving up the street and had given ourselves a month to do it, but had invited a (strong) friend of ours over on the weekend to help move the big stuff. We were trying to get some food in as minimally time-consuming a way as possible.
Anyway, one of the people asked me this knowing full we we had 'net access and mobile phones galore. This infuriated me, it takes 20 seconds to look something up on Google Local search or any number of other online yellowpage type sites. I went on to rant about this being the information age and how people who can't take a second to look for themselves before bugging others should be shot and killed. I'll spare you the full rant since it's a subject that has been discussed often enough that I doubt I have much new to say.
But this all got me to thinking about ability and instinct. Some people, it seems, instinctively know how to search for information (be it online or not), where others feel helpless and overwhelmed when confronted with the sheer volume of information that actually exists about any number of topics. So my question is this: What is it that makes some people able to navigate the complexities of information search and others become paralyzed with fear?
P.S. I do NOT believe this has anything to do with age or exposure to computers and technology early in life. I don't believe for two reasons: first, because as I already indicated computers and online are not the only ways to search for information; and second, because there are *many* people (such as my Father) who did not have computers growing up but navigate online search more dexterously than most.
Anyway, one of the people asked me this knowing full we we had 'net access and mobile phones galore. This infuriated me, it takes 20 seconds to look something up on Google Local search or any number of other online yellowpage type sites. I went on to rant about this being the information age and how people who can't take a second to look for themselves before bugging others should be shot and killed. I'll spare you the full rant since it's a subject that has been discussed often enough that I doubt I have much new to say.
But this all got me to thinking about ability and instinct. Some people, it seems, instinctively know how to search for information (be it online or not), where others feel helpless and overwhelmed when confronted with the sheer volume of information that actually exists about any number of topics. So my question is this: What is it that makes some people able to navigate the complexities of information search and others become paralyzed with fear?
P.S. I do NOT believe this has anything to do with age or exposure to computers and technology early in life. I don't believe for two reasons: first, because as I already indicated computers and online are not the only ways to search for information; and second, because there are *many* people (such as my Father) who did not have computers growing up but navigate online search more dexterously than most.