Thursday, September 14, 2006

Information Flush

According to the Bathroom Readers Institute (Volume 18), the first Encyclopedia Britannica, published in 1771, was only 3 volumes long. Image that – the bathroom reader, which is no doubt the most fascinating and eclectic reference set you will ever read, has six times as much information as the first encyclopedia!

Some more interesting bits of information to pass on to you:
In a book titled Information Anxiety author Richard Saul Wurman writes that a “weekday edition of the New York Times contains more information than an average person was likely to come across in a lifetime in seventeenth-century England.” And here is the kicker; the New York Times, unlike the 18th edition of the Bathroom Reader, can be read in one sitting!

Unless you’ve run into a very bad case of something awful.

We are a culture trying to sort through the collateral damage of information overload; there is so much to take in from so many different sources that we have evolved into living breathing RSS feeds. We will only take in exactly what we want and nothing else because there is simply no other option.

The noise that surrounds the message and story of Jesus is louder and more cluttered then ever before; the market share the church once enjoyed has been slowly and, in many cases, systematically filtered out. What will the church do to make it necessary for people to hear them? How will they hear us?
-Jer

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3 comments:

Boomer said...

Too much information...lol. I was watching this show on Sunday called "Make Some Noise" on CBC (which is one of 2 channels I get on my rabbit ears) and there was a bio on this young full activist who among other things is out to battle media overload. They staged a protest where they would strategically move through the city w/ pole w/ giant white sheets strung between them covering comercial space. Most of the time I find activists ridiculous, but this was a cool idea.

All that to say nothing, and by nothing I mean something to add to the noise...enjoy your intellectual dominance of the 17th Century Man...happy throne readings.

Boomer said...

Whoops "full-time activist"...the other almost sounds sleazy...and it was a dude.

jeremy postal said...

Edition 19 might make a great anytime-present! hint hint