Technology is interesting.  We have rapidly ascended from researched and authority driven answers to the google search result becoming the guru of the day.  Unfortunately this new and designed algorithm has both blessed us with information at our fingertips but also cursed us with a myopic view of the world.

Eli Pariser, in his book The Filter Bubble, puts forth an astute view of our instant result world.  He states that we have now entered a time in which our internet searches are becoming tailored to us individually in order to give us what we want.  The problem, however, is that we then get self gratifying answers.  If we both search for the same topic, we are given results that either fall under sycophantic personalization “You’re so great and wonderful, and I’m going to tell you exactly what you want to hear” or the parental result, “I’m going to tell you this whether you want to hear this or not, because you need to know.”  Eli argues that we are headed toward the sycophantic direction.

In this regard, our intellect is becoming bloated by jejune material as our bodies would respond to a pure diet of fats and sugars.  We are mentally digesting the least beneficial material.  So, as you may reexamine your diet and focus on that next workout, don’t forget to challenge your intellect and we especially wary of that googled guru.