“We are drowning in information but starved for knowledge.” – John Naisbitt

Quantity is crowding out quality, especially when it comes to information and knowledge.  We have never searched, acquired, consumed, processed, or digitalised more information in our history than we do now.  The quantity of information we consume is staggering. 

In 2024, 402.74 quintillion bytes (that’s, 402,740,000,000,000,000,000) of information were added to the internet.  That’s in one year, which is growing exponentially each year.  How much is too much?  Is there a point of diminishing returns?

The ocean of information we have is not necessarily quality information.  Much of our information is flawed and biased.  And, it appears to be affecting our ability to acquire what is even more salient, that being knowledge.

Much of our collected information actually diminishes our knowledge.  What are the types of information that may be limiting our increased knowledge?

Misinformation

When information is disseminated through fake news the public is deceived and their belief in truth and authenticity is damaged.  False or inaccurate information, getting the facts wrong, is misinformation. 

The collected information is inaccurate and has no redeeming qualities contributing to new knowledge.  Because the information lacks an accurate context knowledge is absent.

It is damaging because in many ways misinformation spreads ideas and data that may even interfere with the acquisition of new knowledge.  The receiver of misinformation is duped into believing false information that leads to the assumption of having knowledge that is not corroborated by facts.   

“Disinformation is more than just lying: it's the denial and twisting of reality in order to present some desired image to the rest of the world.” – Will Hurd

Disinformation

False information which is deliberately intended to mislead is disinformation.  Although misinformation is misleading it is passed along through ignorance.  Disinformation is passed along with an intent to deliberately deceive and mislead the receiver.  The repercussions of disinformation are even more damaging than misinformation due to the motivation to manipulate information to influence the receiver in an intended direction.  Disinformation may look real but the facts have been altered to suit the purpose of deception, and the avoidance of fact.

Pseudoscience

When science is mistakenly influencing a collection of beliefs or practices it is called pseudoscience.  The science will have its flaws but just being labelled science may falsely influence people into believing what the scientific method has revealed.  This is still quantity information lacking quality.  Science does not get a free ride.  The science has to be credible and substantiated.  The power of labelling something as science may be a tactic of deception.  

Denialism

Al Gore talked about an ‘inconvenient truth’ in terms of the denial of climate change many years ago.  Denialism is when a person denies reality as a way to avoid believing in an uncomfortable truth. 

When the repercussions of the truth are threatening in some way, denialism may be the obvious preferred choice.  This means factual, truthful information may be denied, which is another potential loss to increased knowledge.   

Information bias 

Any systematic difference from the truth that arises in the collection, recall, recording and handling of information in a study, including how missing data is dealt with is potentially information bias.  This type of bias can occur from a misclassification bias, observer bias, recall bias or a reporting bias.  Because this information arises in the collection of information it is more about a misrepresentation of that information, which may be intentional or accidental. 

Dunning-Kruger Effect

The Dunning-Kruger effect happens due to a cognitive bias.  This occurs either when people with low ability or knowledge in a specific area overestimate their own competence or highly skilled people underestimate theirs.  A lack of expertise keeps someone from recognizing their own shortcomings and the skill level of others.  The information derived from this effect will be less than accurate due to the cognitive bias, which ultimately affects any potential for increased knowledge.      

Countering False Information

What are some of the ways to counter false information?  When you are exposed to misinformation, disinformation, pseudoscience, denialism, information bias, or the Dunning-Kruger Effect, what can you do?  Try any or all of the following approaches:

-         Avoid repeating the false information

-         Support evidence-based information

-         Correct the false information

-         Debunk the false information and repeat the debunking as needed

-         Pre-bunk through information that identifies false information

-         Data share truthful factual information

“Where is all the knowledge we lost with information?” – T.S. Eliot

Concerns for Knowledge

Information is all around but what about knowledge?  Before the explosion of the information age, we used to equate information with knowledge.  These days that idea may be history.  Information may even be contraindicated for the advancement of knowledge.  Due to the fact that we are now overwhelmed with information, crowded with quantity, much of it false or misleading, knowledge may be much harder to delineate. 

We will have to filter through a plethora of information to find the vital bits of knowledge we are seeking.  Our future accessibility to knowledge may be more random and accidental due to the quantity of information.  Paradoxically, information may be an impediment to increased knowledge.  Years ago, who would have ever thought or believed that information could negate knowledge?