I live in a world where it is "cool" to be informed.

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Each morning at breakfast, I read a morning briefing from The New York Times’ digital app. As I wait for my afternoon classes to start, I scroll through my Facebook feed noting the popular headlines and op-eds of the day, some even linking to supplementary podcasts and news videos. And when the day starts to wind down, I tune into late night television shows, often mentioning some of the many stories I had picked up on throughout the day, often with a humorous twist.

 

Within the first thirty minutes of the morning, I learn about the day’s news stories, and can run through a re-cap of the days events by the time my head hits the pillow at night. It feels good to be “in the know.”

 

And, lucky for those of us who seek to understand, being “in the know” has never been easier. In our current digital world, online information providers have realized this progression to a more informed citizenry, providing an incredible number of platforms to tell a single story a hundred different ways. Using the Internet’s ability to embed, link, and share various content, such platforms have turned information consumption into an experience of true storytelling. In other words, news and information are being communicated in a variety of creative, engaging ways, more so than ever before.

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But there has to be a catch, right?

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I'd argue that the catch lies in the difference between being informed and having understanding, a distinction on which the foundation of this Capstone site is built.

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As an information consumer myself, it took a while for me to conceptualize this distinction. In my opinion, it is the inevitable answer to the familiar statements like, "there is just so much information, I don't know what to do with it!" or, "how am I expected to keep up with what is going on in the world when five sources are publishing five different perspectives on the same issue?" These are statements of those who are navigating  "hollow knowledge,"  that is, knowledge without the contextual support required for true understanding.

 

The distinction between being informed and having understanding provides a path beyond hollow knowledge. Specifically, to acknowledge this distinction is to acknowledge news biases, our own biases, and the faults of a silver-lined, information-abundant world.

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I have navigated these questions throughout the past four months.

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This website is the culmination of my path to understanding what it means to have "hollow knowledge" in an information abundant world, and whether or not we can achieve the path beyond hollow knowledge toward one of understanding.

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