Gaga over Google? Help is here
By Dana Borcea
The Hamilton Spectator(Mar 14, 2006)

Google just about any subject and you're bound to get back more information than you know what to do with.

Typing "information overload" into the popular search engine, for instance, brings up 30 million results.

Tonight in The Spectator Auditorium, McMaster University professor Geoffrey Martin Rockwell hopes to show those besieged by technology how to better navigate the information highway.

The talk is part of the Science in the City series, jointly sponsored by The Spectator and McMaster University.

Between the infinite web- sites, the unanswered e-mails and that instant message box that keeps popping up on the corner of your screen, logging on has become a sink or swim venture.

In his lecture Too Much to Read: Using Computers to Cope With Information Overload, Rockwell will discuss the explosion of information and how traditional ways of finding information no longer work.

If you remember using card catalogues, keep reading. Going to the library and taking out the books on the shelf organized around your subject doesn't cut it anymore, says Rockwell.

"It would be very hard for me to assure my readers I have read everything out there on a certain subject."

There's just too much information now.

Instead of worrying that they can't read it all, people should focus on coping techniques. For a hint on how, watch your kids.

Anyone born in the early 1980s or later has a good shot at falling into the generation that Rockwell describes as "digital natives." They are the "native speakers of the digital language of computers, video games and the Internet."

And that makes the rest us "digital immigrants."

The immigrants have much to learn from the natives, he adds. Like how to multi-task.

"When I was a student doing my homework, I'd have out a book, some paper, a pen and maybe some radio in the background," said Rockwell.

Today's students have a lot more on the go. While they're doing their homework, many are downloading music and video to their playlists, researching online and instant messaging with friends.

But that doesn't mean they're learning any less.

"They're doing their homework in a much more social way and tests have shown that students learn more from their peers," said Rockwell.

Young people know how and where to look for information, he adds.

"They're part of an information-seeking community."

In addition to providing tips and tools, the Department of Communication Studies and Multimedia professor promises to dole out a little therapy, too.

"I'm hoping to reassure people," he said. "If they're under the impression that there's too much information out there, they're right."

The lecture at The Hamilton Spectator Auditorium, 44 Frid St., begins at 7 p.m. Doors open at 6:30. It is free and open to the public. For more information or to reserve a seat, call 905-525-9140 ext. 24934 or e-mail sciencecity@mcmaster.ca.

dborcea@thespec.com 905-526-3214