So, this isn’t library related but I need a new videocard so I can keep geeking it up. Meaning play games on my computer. What should I buy? I need some suggestions…

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A few weeks back I did a “Lunch n’ Learn” presentation for MoDOT staff on basic internet searching. I’m still not sure how useful it was (the presentation was very high-level), but I’m posting it here anyway. Lift, borrow, or plagiarize to your heart’s content.

Unless you’ve lived Ted Kaczynski style this past year, nobody in their right mind would say it’s been a harmonious one – politically, socially, or economically. I guess you can say a lot of people are pissed off. They’re pissed at heathcare reform, they’re pissed at the economy, and they’re pissed at a gazillion other little things like the I-Pad. Let’s face it, in America righteous indignation is in.

With information as accessible as it ever was, current news spreads fast.  But, is that a good thing? Is there a dark side to having quick access to information? I don’t doubt that there are many, many benefits,  but it’s also plausible that a universal acceptance of new media can lead to an inevitable playing toward the lowest common denominator?

Like sex, anger and frustration sell remarkably well.

Now, to be fair there’s a long tradition in journalism of people playing to others feelings, and new media doesn’t change that, but it’s also realistic to believe we are witnessing a sort of megaphone effect. People naturally look to validate their own beliefs and we all have source biases. But, given that there are so many sources out there the promulgation of information means that today it’s possible to validate anything. Once upon a time objective research was considered to be important. Today it garners CNN’s ratings.

As time goes on and the general public “backs up” their arguments using easily found resources, I suspect, they will also come to more rigidly defend them. After all if you can find it quickly then it must be true, right? The more rigidly the general public defends their arguments, of course, the more likely we are to see an increase in the volume of national discourse.

If this is the case, then the free flow of information may actually come at a cost. Blogs, Twitter,  and the changing technology driving shifts in information seeking behaviors… I see them as partially to blaim.

Yesterday I took a quick trip to Ellis Library to read up on competitive intelligence.  Maybe it’s just me, but the majority of what I found was managerial business stuff that an MBA student would read. Don’t get me wrong. Business and administration books have their value, even though I’m not interested in them, but it seems odd to me that everything I found focused on supply chains and the like.

Does anyone know of something that I should be reading?