AKA: Unlimited information, limited horizon.

It was big news when web sites introduced the ability to customize your home page to fit your interests. If you were a sports fan, you could fill the page with all sorts of sports news. Is it gossip that you like, no problem, that’s available too.

Fast-forward to the present, and we have so much to choose from. If I like sports, not only can I see the sports headlines, but I can use RSS to subscribe to 25 blogs about my favorite team.

Still have a couple of free moments? Go subscribe to 1 blog for the rest of the teams, that will take care of it.

I could go on and on about how you can find the news and subject matter that interests you. Let’s just say that today it’s possible to eat up every spare moment of your life reading about your niche subject.

For years now, I have been saying that no matter what you may be interested in, get on the Internet, and you can find someone who bases their entire life around that subject. Star Trek, Star Wars, any celebrity, toenail clippings, the Muppets, you name it. This is actually one of my favorite aspects of the Internet. If I have a passing interest in something, I can quickly learn everything I would want to know about it.

Not long ago Wil Harris posted “Personalised everything“, and I’ve been thinking about it on and off. Wil talks about how this ability to customize everything makes us miss out on other things that are happening in the world. Mostly I agree with Wil, if we don’t experience anything outside of our little niches, then aren’t we really missing out.

To help widen his horizons, Wil started reading magazines and newspapers. I like reading blogs about different topics, so I can get a take on what other people are thinking. My wife is a big fan of the news, so she always brings up things that are going on in the world and in our community.

The Internet is this tool that allows us to interact with people all over the country, and all over the world. We can share our views and opinions, and read the views and opinions of others. It would be truly unfortunate if ultimately a tool that can put us in contact with so much information ends up isolating us in our own niches.

Photo: ”Pile of Old Books” by Sarah Sturtevant

References:

- “Personalised everything” by Wil Harris

Posted in opinion, Internet 2 Comments »