Information and Understanding in an Age of Data

The above image was called to my mind while reading the following quotation:

“We know that we are continually subjected to a huge range of sensory inputs and internal experiences of sensations and thoughts. In fact, almost anything existing in our universe, that can come into human and other animals' purview, can be experienced as information - a bird call, our friend's 'hello,' the rock we trip over, the intuition we have about the honesty of someone we are talking to, a book we read.” 
― Marcia J. Bates

We are unabashedly inundated with data at every turn in this world. Apart from our own data, internal and external, we are living in a time and place where the digital world is always knocking down our doors. It is nearly impossible to circumvent technology- television, internet, smart phones, or other handheld devices, and with all of those things come the torrents of marketing, facts, opinions, figures, and materials that have come to define the environment of living in the 21st century. 

Before this program I had not extensively contemplated the differences between data and information, but rather passingly regarded data as findings or statistical figures in articles and research. However, our world is built on data and the ways in which we have both independently and collectively agreed to process it. Perhaps it would behoove us to consider more often the data itself and how we access it.

To a large extent, we are all the creators of the digital world. Individual people transmit data to the internet, it is then interpreted, then fed back into the internet in an endless loop. In this way the roles of producer and consumer seem to be constantly blurring. We are continuously sharing information/data that is personal, local, and global. When I think about my news feed on FaceBook I think of information about GMOs, the failings of our government, and statistics on welfare becoming intermixed with people's feelings, photos, and opinions. Most of the time it becomes frustrating to siphon through this information and the many interpretations to find the originating data (about which, more often than not, I interpret in my own way). Because of this I tend to agree with the observation of Richard Wurman that this Age of Information is more about non-information.

As a result of "sharing" everything, we put ourselves in a position for great personal knowledge and cultivation of individual wisdom, but also, on a more global level, a great deal of conflict and collaboration. With access to data and information, every person becomes entitled to expressing their personal opinions and interpretations. This is often a good experience- given us a sense of fellowship, but it has been (in my experience and observation) a test of acceptance and tolerance in peers. I would venture to say that everyone reading this has either altered a friendship or seen one altered because of differing opinions  or disputes of misinformation related to shared content on a social media platform (the most recent example being the Trayvon Martin case ruling). 

What seems to be missing in this age of information sharing is perspective- a sense of others- a consciousness that while (as individuals) we perceive the world and its events in a very particular way, so does every other individual in the world. Regardless of the vast sea of information we drift through every day, what matters the most is that the data is available to others in such a way that they are able to process and integrate it into their experience. As librarians, it will be our task to provide information to patrons and allow them to achieve their specific goals regardless of our own contextual framework. What answer's questions we have, might not answer the questions our patrons have because of our individual contexts.

Our patrons come to us seeking information, and in transmitting it to them we have to overcome our own sense of what the patron is looking for in order to provide the best possible outcome. Their questions become our questions regardless of our own knowledge base. We have to seek answers together in a collaborative experience of information sharing rather than in an individual pursuit of knowledge. 

We must always remember that the meaning patrons take away from the information we help them discover will likely be different from what we might take away from it, and that's okay.