In the same chapter, author Bill McKibben expounds:
We believe that we live in the age of information, that there has been an information revolution. Yet vital knowledge that humans have always possessed
about who we are and where we live seems beyond our reach.
So what if you know what a widget is? Or that you can read an html? Can you identify five edible plants in your bioregion and their seasons of availability? Or can you name five resident and migratory birds in your area? Or what the soil, rocks and minerals around your home are?
I believe that McKibben has named it well. How many things that were common knowledge about the land to people 150 years ago do we still know today? Probably very little if any; I’m including myself as well. I am living a paradox here because I probably spend as much time on the computer every day as I do actually being outside in nature, even though most of my posts of late have been in regards to nature and the environment. A trend that I am slowly reversing. See, I grew up in the country and it was not until I was 19 and went to college that I actually lived in a town or city setting. Since then, (7 years later) I am living in an urban setting and to be quite frank, it is killing me! I can link so many things that have hindered me by being in the city: I was much more inactive than I used to be, easy accessibility to fast food chains that added pounds, and actually preferring to stay home or inside more often. I have wondered how much would be different if I still lived in the country.
Ok, so we have traded in what was once considered basic knowledge for our ancestors 5 generations ago, in order that we might obtain more knowledge and information. Information overload I call it. And all that it is really doing is keeping us more confined and isolated than ever before. But hey, I know what Technorati is! And yet here I am, instead of telling you about what I think as we walk through the woods, I am sitting at my computer blogging it. Dammit!
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