Columnist for CNET.com, Matt Asay, recently wrote the following opinion of the growing deluge of data being accumulated on the internet by the incessant creations from users of all types over even the most mundane aspects in their lives. He argues, but does not prove, that perhaps there is a downside to all of this accumulated electronic information, even equating it to a potential shortage of fuel or timber towards the end of his article.
While it is unlikely that this is true in my opinion, for an author that is so concerned with the prevalence of useless mutterings over the internet, this article seems only to add to it. Without making a point he introduces a subject only to refute and then re-suggest it in a matter of two or three lines.
To be sure there are facts of interest and significance strewn throughout this piece. One such example is the observation of declining costs associated with hard-drive space and physical database hardware that are occurring while simultaneously the increasing cost of “indexing and searching” the internet are increasing. The problem with these statements are that everyone already knows them, a contributor of his status might better serve his readers therefore by offering some suggestions as to how these onslaughts of data might be avoided or improved upon. Instead we have simply one more article to add to “the digital debris” of our time.
