''Data Smog'' is a 1997 book by journalist
David Shenk
David Shenk is an American writer, lecturer, and filmmaker. He is author of six books, including ''The Genius in All of Us'' (2010), ''Data Smog'' (1997), ''The Forgetting'' (2001), and ''The Immortal Game'' (2006), and has contributed to ''Nation ...
and published by
HarperCollins
HarperCollins Publishers LLC is one of the Big Five English-language publishing companies, alongside Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, Hachette, and Macmillan. The company is headquartered in New York City and is a subsidiary of News Cor ...
. It addresses the author's ideas on how the
information technology
Information technology (IT) is the use of computers to create, process, store, retrieve, and exchange all kinds of data . and information. IT forms part of information and communications technology (ICT). An information technology system (I ...
revolution would shape the world, and how the large amount of data available on the
Internet
The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...
would make it more difficult to sift through and separate fact from fiction.
Argument of the book
According to ''Data Smog'', with the advance of
technology
Technology is the application of knowledge to reach practical goals in a specifiable and reproducible way. The word ''technology'' may also mean the product of such an endeavor. The use of technology is widely prevalent in medicine, science, ...
, we have been able to progress in terms of society, economy, and even health. Communication is instantaneous, knowledge is abundant, and as humans we try to keep up with this expansion of data that continues to accumulate from around the world.
However, it is the overwhelming amount of information that is defined as data smog; "this unexpected, unwelcome part of our atmosphere, an expression for the noxious muck and druck of the
Information age
The Information Age (also known as the Computer Age, Digital Age, Silicon Age, or New Media Age) is a historical period that began in the mid-20th century. It is characterized by a rapid shift from traditional industries, as established during ...
."
[Bucy, Eric P. (2005). Living in the Information Age: A New Media Reader. In Shenk, David, The First Law of Data Smog (pp. 159). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.] The wealth of information is harming some because of sheer amount of it and rate of production: "The sheer volume of information which many of us are exposed to every day may actually impair our performance and add stress to our lives."
[About.com Medical Review Board. (2003). Coping with "Data Smog". Retrieved March 4, 2007, www.About.com Web site: http://mentalhealth.about.com/cs/computerstuff/a/datasmog.htm] In fact, according to statistics provided by Shenk, "In 1971 the average American was targeted by at least 560 daily advertising messages. Twenty years later, that number has risen six fold, to 3,000 messages per day."
It is argued that "Just as fat has replaced starvation as this nation’s number one dietary concern,
information overload has replaced information scarcity as an important new emotional, social, and political problem."
As per
David Lewis, PhD in psychology, this attempt at consuming the majority of data, the result is what he calls "information fatigue syndrome."
[Murray, Bridget. (1998). Data smog: newest culprit in brain drain. Retrieved March 4, 2007, www.apa.org: VOLUME 29, NUMBER 3 Web site: http://www.apa.org/monitor/mar98/smog.html] This term refers to the data smog that we encounter daily that ultimately interferes with our sleep, concentration, and even affecting our
immune systems.
According to
clinical psychologist
Clinical psychology is an integration of social science, theory, and clinical knowledge for the purpose of understanding, preventing, and relieving psychologically based distress or dysfunction and to promote subjective well-being and persona ...
Michelle Weil "the problems stem from people’s overuse or misuse of technologies and from technology’s ineffective presentation of information, researchers are finding."
Suggested alleviation
Ways in which to 'beat the smog':
* Turn off the television for at least an hour or two every evening.
* Spend some time each week without your pager or cell phone.
* Resist advertising – never buy a product based on unsolicited email (
spam
Spam may refer to:
* Spam (food), a canned pork meat product
* Spamming, unsolicited or undesired electronic messages
** Email spam, unsolicited, undesired, or illegal email messages
** Messaging spam, spam targeting users of instant messaging ( ...
).
* Go on periodic "data fasts". A weekend in the country away from the telephone can rejuvenate a smogged-in brain.
* Write clearly and succinctly.
Verbose
Verbosity or verboseness is speech or writing that uses more words than necessary. The opposite of verbosity is plain language. Some teachers, including the author of ''The Elements of Style'', warn against verbosity; similarly Mark Twain and E ...
writing is wasteful and difficult to read.
* Skim newsletters and magazines and rip out a copy of an article or two that you really want to read and digest.
* Filter your email. Many email programs allow you to set "
filters
Filter, filtering or filters may refer to:
Science and technology
Computing
* Filter (higher-order function), in functional programming
* Filter (software), a computer program to process a data stream
* Filter (video), a software component tha ...
" which send unwanted email directly to the trash. It is worth taking the time to do this.
* Do not forward
chain letters
A chain letter is a message that attempts to convince the recipient to make a number of copies and pass them on to a certain number of recipients. The "chain" is an exponentially growing pyramid (a tree graph) that cannot be sustained indefinite ...
,
urban legend
An urban legend (sometimes contemporary legend, modern legend, urban myth, or urban tale) is a genre of folklore comprising stories or fallacious claims circulated as true, especially as having happened to a "friend of a friend" or a family m ...
s, urgent messages about email
viruses
A virus is a submicroscopic infectious agent that replicates only inside the living cells of an organism. Viruses infect all life forms, from animals and plants to microorganisms, including bacteria and archaea.
Since Dmitri Ivanovsky's 1 ...
, or claims that
Bill Gates
William Henry Gates III (born October 28, 1955) is an American business magnate and philanthropist. He is a co-founder of Microsoft, along with his late childhood friend Paul Allen. During his career at Microsoft, Gates held the positions ...
will send everyone thousands of dollars. These things clog up everybody's
inbox
Electronic mail (email or e-mail) is a method of exchanging messages ("mail") between people using electronic devices. Email was thus conceived as the electronic (digital) version of, or counterpart to, mail, at a time when "mail" meant ...
with worthless stuff.
* Organize your Web bookmarks or
Favorites. Keeping these in meaningful folders will go a long way toward helping you really find that site you are looking for.
Neologism
In 2004, Shenk's original term "data smog" was added to the Oxford English Dictionary
Rick Thompson, ''Writing for Broadcast Journalists'', Routledge, 2005
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References
{{reflist
1997 non-fiction books