Age Of Missing Information Analysis

Words: 1089
Pages: 5
Open Document
We have been told multiple times that we live in the age of information, that we are living through an information revolution, that we are taking in more information than any other culture at any other time in the history of the planet. True enough, says McKibben. But what information is it? Is it valuable, sustaining, enriching information or is it something else? The answer would be “something else.”

Published in 1992, the Age of Missing information is McKibben’s exploration of the information that we are receiving in massive quantities and compares that to the information we are no longer collecting as a culture. The experiment consisted of him videotaping 24 hours worth of television for every channel on American cable TV in the 1990s. …show more content…
In contrast, he then spent 24 hours hiking, camping, swimming atop a mountain near his home. The mountain provided information about limits, completeness, community, sustainability, and fundamental, ongoing happiness while TV provided information about insecurity, individualism, and consumption and broadcasted it as the route to happiness.

"We believe that we live in the 'age of information,' that there has been an information 'explosion,' an information 'revolution.''' (p.9) The explored idea in this part of the passage is the bizarre portrait, Mckibben paints of our way of life and the times that we live in today. The quote summarises the way we see our life. We believe that we are the new generation and that now in this generation, in our generation we have all the new information. The explosion of information that Mckibben writes about is the information we receive through electronics daily. The 'explosion' is the little bits and pieces flying at us that we weren't even searching for. Throughout the book Mckibeen focuses more on the electronic extreme. Every TV program feeds us so much information. It sucks us in and …show more content…
And the problem is not that it exists--the problem is that it supplants. Its simplicity makes complexity hard to fathom." The idea explored in this part of the novel is that we invest so much time into the electronic media it is becoming almost like a second home. It is becoming an environment for us. A place where we find comfort. Where we go to relax. It is becoming a part of us. We've begun settling for second-hand experience and forgotten our skills for self-sufficiency; we've lost touch with our spirituality, with pleasure and pain, with all of our senses except hearing and sight due to the new environment we chose to spend time in. And although we'd like to throw the blame to the TV, it isn't to blame. What is to blame however is the pretty, hollow picture it paints that draws us in convincingly. Why is it that we choose to spend so much time in front of the television? Is it perhaps because what television really is, is an artificial world in a box? Why go outside for a walk when you've got nature programs? Why go to the zoo when animal planet is just a few clicks away? The most seductive part of television itself is the way it makes us feel. It makes us feel like we're the centre of the universe. It connects with us on a level that makes us feel secure. It makes us feel as if we're not alone. That we're part of something special. And after a tiring
Show More

Related Documents: Age Of Missing Information Analysis

ALIVE GWAS Case Study

3.4 Results The ALIVE GWAS subset includes 1,197 participants drawn from the ALIVE cohort in 1998. The median age at first visit was 34. There were 287 (24%) females and 882 (76%) males. They visited semiannually with 19 average visits per person. This translates into about 9 years of information on each subject. The population was predominantly African American (98%). About half of the participants were HIV positive when they entered the ALIVE cohort. 1,029 participants were injection drug users…

Words 1648 - Pages 7

Case Report Essay

Introduction: A young couple was out for an early morning run, where they stumbled upon a human skull. The police arrived at the scene and unearthed two human skeletons lying side by side. The police have a lot of missing people cases and are looking for answers. Like whom these people are? Also can bones tell their story and give there grieving families a closure? Summary of findings: I started my research with trying to find the sex of the skeleton. The most variable…

Words 808 - Pages 4

Strength Of Identification

the preservation of soft tissue components of the body, i.e., physical features not distorted by decomposition or injury (Sopher, 1972). When a visual identification cannot be made, other means such as fingerprint comparison, DNA analysis, comparative dental analysis, and radiological comparison are necessary (Koot, et al.,…

Words 542 - Pages 3

How Could Your Research Be Summarised

research be summarised? 5% Missing/Absent or have presented irrelevant material or failed to address the question or have plagiarised. 0 - 2 The summary given was briefly describe 2.5- 3 The summary addressed most aspects of the purpose, method, results and discussion. 3– 3.5 As previous, with clear indication of summary of study and implications. 4 – 4.5 As previous and within 150 words. 5 INTRODUCTION What was the purpose of the study? 5% Missing/Absent or have presented…

Words 2072 - Pages 9

Essay about Aboriginal Women in Canada

including shelter, and government care, and information about missing persons. In all articles chosen from the selected databases, the prime focus is the violence against Aboriginal women. A common idea that lies within these articles is the lack of attention towards Aboriginal women compared to other females, or cultural societies in general. This underlying social problem is in need of urgent attention, however, insufficient information is provided to societies, which therefore cease…

Words 1372 - Pages 6

Essay about Criminal Investigations Chapter 1 Questions

Yet another system the FBI has used in its investigations is face recognition technology, called ImAger, has been used to age photographs of missing children to give investigators and law enforcement of good idea of what the child would look like after all the time the child has been missing. A similar system is being used by police sketch artists to draw sketches or suspects. All of these are more are just some of the advances and improvements made in the…

Words 1592 - Pages 7

The Importance Of National Intelligence

gov/milestones/1945­1952/national­security­act National Security Act of 1947 3 Montero country played out, whether it be by committing monstrosities during the Vietnam War, Violating American rights and illegally collecting information on American citizens, or illegally selling weapons from Israel to Iran to help finance Nicaraguan Contras. These operations have impacted the culture, the infrastructure, and even in some cases the environment in the country in…

Words 3052 - Pages 13

Sutter Health Approach Essay

lacks accident information. • Workers' compensation is filed with an occurrence code other than 04. • The patient's guarantor is under 18 years old. • The patient's marital status is widowed, but the relative is listed as husband, wife, or spouse. • The patient type is not valid for hospital service. • The patient is age 65 or older, but the Medicare insurance plan is missing. • The patient had Medicare in any plan code, but the Medicare secondary payer questionnaire is missing. • The health…

Words 2282 - Pages 10

Nt1310 Unit 7 Data Analysis

put into classes or categories and key into the computer for analysis. In this study, all data will be coded into numerical forms before the data is generating using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) software which can help researcher quickly and easily interpret data. There are three sections in the questionnaire and coding for each sections will be shown in table below: Table 3.10: Label and Coding for General Information (Section A) Question No. Label Coding Q1 Have you ever purchased…

Words 1398 - Pages 6

The Return Of Martin Guerre Analysis

one year later from the film production. In fact, the two accomplishments are in somehow linked to each other, but at the same time, they are difference in a certain extent or degree. This comes as no surprise, since a historian analysis is not the same as an artist analysis. That is, both of them have different purposes and approaches. To put it differently, truly, writing an incident as a historical event is not the same as a film production. As a matter of fact, there are some challenges for both…

Words 1951 - Pages 8