Information overload

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โ€œJust today I found out from Twitter that there was a huge car accident in my hometown a few hours away. If this were five years ago, I would have had to wait a lot longer to find these things out. So in a way, Iโ€™m glad that I have all this access to news, but then I think, โ€˜Would my life really be that different if I had to wait five or six hours to know these things?โ€™ Because sometimes the more I know, the more I want to know, and then I become obsessed with it.โ€
โ€”Alyssa Bailey, second year general arts


โ€œWith so many news sources, everyone has an informed opinion, but sometimes itโ€™s so hasty. Like with SOPA, right away everyone was just like, โ€˜Theyโ€™re killing the Internet!โ€™ Like, dude, back off and do some research. This is what happens when you get all your information in 140 characters or less.โ€
โ€”Andrew McKay, fourth year history


โ€œProbably the hardest thing with seeing a new headline every time I refresh my browser is sorting whatโ€™s relevant and what isnโ€™t.โ€
โ€”Brandon Lindsay, fourth year general arts


โ€œOne thing that stands out to me was Occupy Wall Street. I didnโ€™t know a lot about it at first, but I felt like I did because it was all I saw on Facebook and stuff… but every time I would form an opinion on it, someone would link me to another article or something that gave a different perspective. It was both really cool and really annoying โ€“ different media sources definitely dictate how you view things.โ€
โ€”Andrew Deveau, third year economics


โ€œI think itโ€™s really important to follow a variety of news sources, even right-leaning ones like Fox News. Thatโ€™s the only way you can really learn about something and form an opinion on it without just jumping on a bandwagon. That takes a lot of commitment, though.โ€
โ€”Drew Garlichs, third year economics


โ€œIโ€™ve actually tweeted like three times since we started talking.โ€
โ€”Brigitte McLeod, first year communication studies


โ€œBetween Reddit, Twitter and news apps on my phone, Iโ€™d like to think Iโ€™m a well-informed person. But itโ€™s difficult because you could have the exact same story written from different news sources that claim to be unbiased and neutral and they come off as totally different stories โ€“ painting one party as the good guy and another as the bad guy. I never know who to believe.โ€
โ€”Geoff Lee, first year business


โ€œIf I lost Internet for 24 hours, I think I might kill myself.โ€
โ€”Chris MacCoy, second year history


โ€œSometimes itโ€™s a little crazy having news thrown at me from every direction, but in the end I still feel smarter than if I were just using Twitter to talk to my friends and follow celebrities.โ€
โ€”Amanda Carreiro, first year sociology


โ€œI just recently had to go 24 hours without my phone. I actually went crazy. It feels like my one connection to the outside world.โ€
โ€”Rhianna Whitton, fourth year medieval studies


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Serving the Waterloo campus, The Cord seeks to provide students with relevant, up to date stories. Weโ€™re always interested in having more volunteer writers, photographers and graphic designers.