Information overload

“Just 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, I’m glad that I have all this access to news, but then I think, ‘Would my life really be that different if I had to wait five or six hours to know these things?’ Because sometimes the more I know, the more I want to know, and then I become obsessed with it.”
—Alyssa Bailey, second year general arts

“With so many news sources, everyone has an informed opinion, but sometimes it’s so hasty. Like with SOPA, right away everyone was just like, ‘They’re killing the Internet!’ Like, dude, back off and do some research. This is what happens when you get all your information in 140 characters or less.”
—Andrew McKay, fourth year history

“Probably the hardest thing with seeing a new headline every time I refresh my browser is sorting what’s relevant and what isn’t.”
—Brandon Lindsay, fourth year general arts

“One thing that stands out to me was Occupy Wall Street. I didn’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 – different media sources definitely dictate how you view things.”
—Andrew Deveau, third year economics

“I think it’s really important to follow a variety of news sources, even right-leaning ones like Fox News. That’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.”
—Drew Garlichs, third year economics

“I’ve actually tweeted like three times since we started talking.”
—Brigitte McLeod, first year communication studies

“Between Reddit, Twitter and news apps on my phone, I’d like to think I’m a well-informed person. But it’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 – painting one party as the good guy and another as the bad guy. I never know who to believe.”
—Geoff Lee, first year business

“If I lost Internet for 24 hours, I think I might kill myself.”
—Chris MacCoy, second year history

“Sometimes it’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.”
—Amanda Carreiro, first year sociology

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