Tracks In The Dust

Getting Your Answer Now

So we live in these times when we can say ” I want my answer now!”. Believing it may be something different.

Just the other day I found myself arguing with a friend over a beer about world affairs and the economy. Unlike days not that long ago, we didn’t have to go on too long expounding about our views and the actuality of what was happening in the world.

The fun of arguing and having a position on something has been severely changed in this Information age.

The answer was in our hands! Both of us grabbed our “smartphones” and Googgled and Binged our way to what we saw was the answer to the debate on the current events of the day. AH-HA said my opponent, listen to this… as he began rattle off some profound insights… I wrangled my way to a URL that had other things to say about the topic too.

So there we were, both spouting off answers about the shape of the world. Knowledge was at our finger tips, the answers were there and we could settle this once and for all and go on enjoying our beers with a bit more repose.

EXCEPT there was one problem: Access to the information didn’t mean we could claim to be knowledgeable at all. In fact who’s to say that what is posted on those Internet  sites our search engines returned was  factual in any significant way? I mean they can site sources with keen authority, but are those sources really correct? For some cases aren’t they just other Internet sites? Are they at risk of being colored with their own opinions?

So there we were- we had opined that we had gotten to our answers about the world’s economy and agreed to disagree.

BUT THEN we realized it,,,, that the Internet may have all sorts of biased and distorted information depending on its originator.

SO that is when we sparked up our next heated debate after all it is fun isn’t it?) : “Is everything you read on the Internet” the truth… just because it has an official name or URL that appears to have some authority or has a well-organized website – how can you know?..

My friends suggestion of how to solve that debate: “Let’s take a look on the Google and see “ …. okay – so I got my answer I guess…. 🙂