I’ve read a lot about how the Internet seems to inhibit important decision making; especially those of the financial type. Given the sheer amount of ways to gather, interpret, and analyze information via the web, there’s obviously justification for these thought processes. Even something as simple as a web search pulls up hundreds of millions of results. Also, advertisers today are secretly disguising their own products as search results, which adds to the clutter considerably.
However, I personally have found the Internet to be a vast help to my personal decision making.
Being a child in the wake of the dot-com-boom, I am no stranger to the Internet and it’s surrounding forests of information. I grew up in a time where the Internet was flourishing. Schools and other institutions made sure to expose the children to the technology as much as possible.
Just today, I have not only used the Internet to make sound financial decisions as well as balance my personal bank account, I have also defeated anxiety of looming disasters by applying the technology positively to calculate and disperse funds between my bank accounts. The Internet itself isn’t the problem with decision making, it’s the driver behind it.
Personally, I believe some people just have decision-making anxiety in the wake of this vast amount of new technology. Whether it’s a generational thing or a person-to-person basis is unknown to me, considering there are some people I know that are not only older than me, but know a lot more about the Internet and it’s driving technologies than I do.
It’s understandable to feel overwhelmed with the amount of information that exists out there. However, it’s not an excuse to delay any important decisions. There are ways to obtain correct, unbiased information very easily on the Internet. It’s not always about what’s most popular. Twitter, Facebook, tumblr, and other related sites may contain that “hot” information and might carry what you’re looking for, but that doesn’t make it the best outlet for the information.
It is possible to use the Internet in a positive manner these days. Most people are just bogged down by all the “junk” that exists out there before they can even get to what they want.