Dangers of Our Google Addiction

Monopoly | Decline in Quality and Accuracy of Information | Mass Culture | Devaluation of Knowledge

Conspiracy: While the above website is obviously well researched

and credible, many are not, and it is often difficult to know

which is which. In fact, the rough html look of the above site

probably made it look less credible than it is, misleading you.

Decline in Quality and Accuracy of Information

Websites that take information from other websites are often called "mulch machines." They mash up original content. And there are a lot of these sites. There are sites that mush up content that has already been mashed up. There is nothing to stop internet users from posting information or misinformation on whatever they want. This is a good thing. But the problem is that, as a user, one often has little idea whether a source is reliable or original. Further, as the internet becomes the compendium of all information, and simultaneously makes information free and open to everyone at any time, it becomes more and more difficult to create content reliably. I'm referring to newspapers and journalism, primarily, but also to any organization that collects, gathers, or synthesizes accurate information-market research firms, for example. The internet is a whole new system of organizing the human race's information, and it is one that emphasizes freedom rather than accuracy and thoroughness. Google is the essence of this process. It literally refocuses the societal nexus of information from the black and white pages of a newspaper or textbook to the white and blue pages of a Google search. Yet only one of these two things (the black and white) is accountable, and only one of these two things (guess which) is an originator of content and information. Yet advertisers and consumers have bought the refocus. And so content generators are struggling to operate, while Google collects ad revenue and hits.