Fahrenheit 451

I was talking with some friends the other day about how fast news travels these days with cell phones and cell phones with internet connections, laptop computers small enough to go and connect anywhere, and then the usual newspapers, magazines, radio, and television news channels. The amount of information and the speed we receive it is absolutely astounding. The world, and I mean literally, those people around the globe connected to some source of a news outlet or social network can learn of an event within minutes. I brought up the novel Fahrenheit 451 in the discussion with my friends as still being relevant today in terms of the quality of information we get. I believe the author of the novel, Ray Bradbury, was concerned that with the invention of television, it would distract people from reading books.He was also discussing other issues in the book that fit nicely into a dystopian future such as lack of personal rights, being manipulated by the government, etc. I particularly like the conversation between the old professor Faber and the fireman Montag and how Faber explains to Montag that (and I am not quoting here) three things are important when we get information:
1. The quality of the information.
2. Time to process the information.
3.Use our own judgement to act on the info and not to do just as we are told.
In this day and age, info is being shot at us practically at the speed of light and then it is on to the next story without having time to process the first story, then the next and so it goes. We get bombarded with facts, stories, news, and have little time to sit down and digest the information.
I love these three points because in our busy lives these days it seems there is little time in a day to process events in our own lives let alone what we see and here on the net, TV, and radio. I know I am going to apply those three ideas to my life because sometimes I feel overwhelmed with information and I have a hard time distinguishing what is fact and important to my life and what is just a story to fill me with fear, prejudice, hate, or whatever the goal of certain news stories may be. I want to take time to digest the information and then decide for myself what it means and what are the implications in my life, city, and country.
The novel is a great read and it was fun re-reading it to get a fresh look at the ideas in light of today's internet driven world we live in.