What good is information? (opens in new tab)

A highlight from the text: -- When the internet arrived, it seemed to promise a liberation from the boredom of industrial society, a psychedelic jet-spray of information into every otherwise tedious corner of our lives. In fact, at its best, it is something else: a remarkable helper in the search for meaningful connections. But if the deep roots of boredom are in a lack of meaning, rather than a shortage of stimuli, and if there is a subtle, multilayered process by which information can give rise to meaning, then the constant flow of information to which we are becoming habituated cannot deliver on such a promise. At best, it allows us to distract ourselves with the potentially endless deferral of clicking from one link to another. Yet sooner or later we wash up downstream in some far corner of the web, wondering where the time went. The experience of being carried on these currents is quite different to the patient, unpredictable process that leads towards meaning. -- I'd imagine that most of us on HN could relate.

Like with any other technologies, or in fact many establishments of Human society, the tool and the use of the tool are two very different things.

Most religions, for instance, were designed to give people a set of values to adhere to without necessarily understanding their purpose. This was very handy in societies where education would be lacking. The only problem being that when you don't understand or forget the purpose of a tool, you then start glorifying the tool itself.

Similarly, the Internet is a means to an end, not an end in itself, unless you let it be so, as I believe is the case with people who think the Internet is responsible for their enternainment. The content is definitely there, but if you can't make use of it or at least appreciate it, then it'll obviously become boring. So in essence, it has nothing to do with the tool, but with the person using it, or rather this evolving tool called "brain".

I think the Law of the instrument[0] is a concept that works both ways: when all you can see is nails, then you'll always resort to the hammer.

[0] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_of_the_instrument