I already feel inundated with incoming phone calls, voice mails, emails, mailings, PMs, not to mention infomercials and the junk they tell me on what used to be called 'News'.
"Information Age". The way individuals and the world share information is evolving, by leaps and bounds since the 1990s.
Imagine living in a sod house on the open plains in the mid 1800s. . . communication came when someone physically came by carrying word of mouth, letters and print material. . . that is a very restrictive "filter" for information to get through.
Why in the world would I want more unsolicited info coming my way from anyone? :-?
I agree completely. Yet, thinking about it, I realize that what I value as "The News", as opposed to, advertising, telemarketing, spam, phishing, etc., is unsolicited information
that I value about what is "new" that I may not even know to ask about. This is a paradox.
To be a whole person, in this Information Age, I wish to guard the amount of time I can give to "information", in my waking day, to what I can manage, and use, delivered in forms that "help me" assimilate "The News" that has value
to me. The more choices for delivery that I have, the better, as any one of them is more likely to fit the moments of the day when I wish to turn my attention to "The News".
Well at least it is voluntary.
Bob, you have nailed, what to me is, the key to the Information Age.
I fast forward through the ads or mute the sound with my remote control.
I label a sender as safe or junk and the software does the rest until I choose to change it.
I track telemarketers, etc. in my cell with a contact name that starts with ? ? ? and I know to ignore it the next time it calls (and I use the search engines to lookup the "Who Calls Me?" bulletin boards to research the calls I get, so I'm not guessing.)
Because I tend to work by myself, when I've got the tools in my hands, I use a single headphone and take in, as I can, live news radio, National Public talk Radio, podcasts, etc.
My 18 yr old son and I talk through SMS text messages.
I read and post here.
I like this voluntary mix of information, you don't have to. Your job is to work out your mix.
And last. Mike's Twitter.
For the first time in all of our known history, any single individual, acting locally, can communicate globally, instantaneously. Mike is offering, it seems, zen like statements about his "local acting" as a NEC mover and shaker. . . just might be "The News".
