In perhaps a delicious piece of irony, a prominent blogger, Beth Kantor, posts about an”Information Diet” as we reflect on Pope Benedict’s message for “World Communications Day” and his call to recognize “relationship between silence and word: two aspects of communication which need to be kept in balance, to alternate and to be integrated with one another if authentic dialogue and deep closeness between people are to be achieved.
She writes of “The Information Diet: Not Just A Book, A Movement For Conscious Consumption of Information“…
“The second part of the book takes us from theory into practice where he offers his recommendations for the Information Diet. Rather than take the philosophy of information overload communityand productivity books that are aimed at helping you get “everything done” and in the process help you continue to consume too much information, he provides some principles for taming our information gluttony. If you’ve been through weight watchers, you’ll immediately make a connection to some of the techniques he suggests. For example, keeping a journal of what you consume and taking incremental steps towards reducing it so it becomes a lifestyle change. Here, he draws from the work of Howard Rheingold when talking about data literacy and attention fitness as well as others and lays out an information diet that is intended to help us change in our daily habits. He doesn’t recommend quick fixes like “unplugging” which is the metaphorical equivalent to a crash diet because it doesn’t work.”
“The ultimate goal of this book is for us to improve our collective information literacy and consumption skills so we have the greatest ability to understand the truth and make our communities and society a more just world.
Now, that’s inspiring!
See also this review in the Atlantic”
Thanks Beth for drawing our attention to this.
