This past Sunday, I was watching CBS This Morning and learned of the Desert Trip concert in Indio, CA. Desert Trip is a concert with six of the most influential classic rock and roll acts of all time: Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Paul McCartney, Neil Young, Roger Waters, and The Who. I had no idea about this event. Right about the minute that I was trying to understand how I never heard of this show – the highest grossing music event of all time – I thought: “I wonder if the Cubs ended up winning last night?” I opened my sports app on my phone and learned that they won.
We have immediate access to all the information we could possibly need or want. If you want to learn about anything … absolutely anything, you can get an answer in a few seconds if you have internet access. Twenty years ago we would have to take a trip to the library or dig through an encyclopedia. It would take hours or days to learn about a certain topic. Today, it takes minutes. However, twenty years ago I would’ve known about Desert Trip months ago, and the Cubs score immediately this morning. I have easy access to anything, so how can I possibly be less informed today? Below are a few reasons, and I bet you can relate…
- I can choose the information I receive today. When I was growing up, I had to buy the entire album if I liked one song, I had to watch live news to get an update on one story, and I had one newspaper to read each day. Along the way, I learned that Cheap Trick was a real rock and roll band, I felt like I knew our anchors and reporters, and I knew about the current events of the day – even if I just read headlines. Today, I would’ve just downloaded I Want You to Want Me, I have no idea about news personalities (and my wife is a news reporter), and I know more about 1992 than 2015.
- Information overload forced me to give up years ago. Twenty years ago, I listened to a few local radio stations, watched local and world news once a day, and read the paper every day. The information to which I had access was limited, but it was consistent and I never missed the big things. Back then, the radio stations would’ve been promoting the heck out of Desert Trip (my commercial-free Pandora stations didn’t make a peep about it), and I would’ve seen the Cubs’ score on the way back up the driveway this morning after grabbing my newspaper.
There are so many options today that I’ve given up. When I need to learn something, I search for it. I don’t allow anyone to have access to my time unless I need information. Efficient? Yes. Limiting and disappointing? Absolutely.
- The sources are not credible. With this blog post, I have potential access to more people today than Tom Brokaw did in 1996. Scary, huh? What’s even worse is the number (millions) of people that create content that’s not true. In order to write a book twenty years ago, you needed to publish a real book that cost a whole lot of money. The publishers did the vetting. Today, books are uploaded by virtually anyone and printed as needed.
It’s not all that bad. In fact, I like 2016 a whole lot more than 1996, even if I’m not as informed. I know a whole lot more about topics in which I’m interested. I can download a new book from my phone and be reading it in seconds. If I had remembered to do so, I could’ve learned about the Cubs’ score when I woke up at 2:30 am to go to the bathroom. It’s better today … different, but better – I just wish newspapers and full length albums were still a part of our lives.
