Unlimited Access to Information is Making People Dumber

In the Age of Information, confirmation bias is victorious.

With Google being so easily accessible and knowing that just about every single question can be answered with a few clicks, you’d think that people would be more educated.

Because there is so much information that is freely available online, you’ll often find multiple websites that give the same information.

Most people don't click past the first page of google. If all those search results on the first page are showing similar answers to the question, then that helps to feed into the echo chamber.

An echo chamber is an environment where a person’s opinions are echoed back to them, which serves to confirm their opinions by ignoring the thoughts and opinions of those that have an opposing point of view.

When someone wants something to be true, they will often only gather the information that proves their points and ignore information that goes against what they think they know.

It takes good media literacy to understand that gathering information that reflects all sides of the argument. There are plenty of people that really do try to do more than confirm their point of view but these people seem to be eclipsed by those that don’t do proper research.

One of the best and worst things about the internet is that everyone is free to share what they think, but a lot of it is unregulated so people can share opinions as if they’re facts without showing any sources.

People also don’t know how to do proper research. It turns out that 60% of people will only read an article’s headline…

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