By generating a vast amount of trivial information, the telegraph completely altered the “information-action ratio.”
Henry David Thoreau wrote in his book Walden: “We are hastily building a telegraph system from Maine to Texas, but perhaps there is nothing important to transmit from Maine to Texas at all… We are eager to cross the Atlantic and bring the Old World closer to the New World by a few weeks, but perhaps the first news that reaches the ears of Americans will be that Princess Adelaide has whooping cough.”
The first telegraph system in 1838. (Photo: History.com).
This statement implies that the telegraph renders information trivial. The abundant flow of information has very little relevance, or none at all, to the people it is directed towards. In other words, information is fundamentally detached from the social context and knowledge of the reader.
“Water, water everywhere, but not a drop to drink” – Coleridge’s quote becomes a metaphor for an information environment where context is stripped away: In a sea of information, there is very little useful information.
A man in Maine and a man in Texas can converse with one another, but there is no topic that they fully understand or care about together. The telegraph may have helped turn the entire country into “one neighborhood,” but it is a very peculiar neighborhood, populated entirely by strangers who know nothing about each other, except for superficial, frivolous information.
Today, we live in such a “neighborhood” (sometimes referred to as a “global village”), and you can understand what context-free information is by asking yourself the following questions: Does the information you receive on the radio, television, or in the morning newspapers often compel you to change your plans for the day or take actions that you would not have taken without that information? Does the information you are receiving provide detailed data on issues you need to address?
For most of us, weather news sometimes has such an impact; for investors, stock market news influences them; perhaps a crime story would prompt action if the crime occurred near where we live or involved someone we know.
However, most of our daily news is meaningless, consisting solely of information that gives us something to discuss but does not lead to any significant actions. This reality is the primary legacy of telegraph technology: By generating a vast amount of trivial information, the telegraph has completely changed the “information-action ratio.”
