In his book Amusing Ourselves to Death, Neil Postman warned about the dangers of being overloaded with too much useless information. With the advent of the Internet and 24-hour news cycles, it’s easy to see how his warning has come true. We are constantly bombarded with information, much of which is distractions from what’s really important.
Postman argued that television was turning America into a nation of distraction. He warned that we were becoming more concerned with entertainment than substance. While television certainly has its share of frivolous programming, it also provides a way to stay informed about current events and learn new things. The Internet has taken things to a whole new level.
We now have access to an endless stream of information, much of which is useless distractions masquerading as news. Social media amplifies this problem by giving us a constant stream of updates from our friends and family, many of whom we don’t even really care about.