A keen mind can parse multitudes of data and select which is applicable to the question in hand. I’d rather have too many choices than not enough — and rely on my filtering skills to get to the juicy nuggets that I need.
But you are right in that the brain needs to be trained to efficiently parse tons of data. I struggle with this daily, as I have an insatiable appetite for knowledge, learning, and yes — data. There is no doubt that thanks to the Internets, the way in which we access and parse data has changed exponentially, even in just the past 3-5 years. While it may seem overwhelming at first, I have no doubt that the mind will evolve to better process data.
Think of kids in middle school or even high school now — they won’t ever know a world without the Internet. Likely their brains will develop differently than those of us who remember a world without unlimited data at our fingertips.
With the likes of Google, Wikipedia, Zillow, and even data such as photos, tweets, and blogs, and your friends lists on Facebook (yes, your friends are ‘data’), there is no doubt that that we have almost unlimited data at our disposal. The key is ‘everything in moderation.’ It’s better to snort a line at a time than to bury your face in a mountain of powder, Scarface style.
