The Lure Of Data: Is It Addictive?

Overhype

from the sounds-familiar dept

The number of people who emailed me the following article is a bit scary (I think it set a new record). However, there really isn’t too much to say about the NY Times hype-filled article talking about people who are constantly connected to the internet, and wondering if they’re “addicted to data”. It wouldn’t take too much effort to find a dozen similar articles that smaller news organizations have put out in the last few years. It’s a popular topic, and it gets a lot of attention, but it always tends towards sensationalism, rather than any useful discussion. Certainly, some people do get somewhat “addicted” to the “high” of having always on data access, but that doesn’t mean the tools can’t be used to make life better as well – and it doesn’t mean that there’s anything wrong with being “always on”. There are plenty of good reasons to be able to access any information from anywhere at any time, but those discussions don’t sell newspapers.