闲人

There is too much information.

Not a new realization, nor an original one, but there it is. At some point most people would have come across one article or another stating the point (because, well, of the excessive information flowing around), but it is soon washed away, just another drop in the ocean.

We can't actually avoid it. Well we can I suppose, if we are willing to take the effort to stay off the grid. For most people, it would be more sensible to learn to manage the information. But the thing is even methods of managing information are part of the information itself. They are things that need to be sifted through, tested for reliability before one commits, if one commits.

I think there are several layers to processing information. The most basic level would probably be assessing the accuracy of the information. As it stands, most of us don't know that the Earth goes around the Sun. Ah, but most people do know that, some people might say. Precious few people actually KNOW it to be true. Most of us are simply regurgitating the information from sources that we deem reliable.

And it's not just the obvious pieces of information, the facts that you can list down. I think what causes a bigger impact is the unconscious layer, the pieces of information that one uses to create one's worldview without even realizing. What is to be valued, what are virtues, what life should be about. I won't claim that it is "dangerous" that these areas are not examined thoroughly, because the fact is that many people go through their lives unexaminingly, and they do manage to live out their lives. Still, there is perhaps value in examining the assumptions behind our worldview.