This may not be true of Slashdot readers, but I think the majority of Americans spend a huge percentage of their non-working, non-sleeping time tapped into some kind of entertainment. TV shows, Netflix, sports, music-as-background, smartphone and console games; the list goes on and on. All of these interfere with critical thinking.
In the U.S., doing critical thinking brands you as an "intellectual", and we've always been anti-intellectual in this country. What other country in their history has had a political party called the "Know Nothings"?
I think for the most part we've inoculated ourselves against Information Overload just by not paying attention.
Slashdot Mirror
This may not be true of Slashdot readers, but I think the majority of Americans spend a huge percentage of their non-working, non-sleeping time tapped into some kind of entertainment. TV shows, Netflix, sports, music-as-background, smartphone and console games; the list goes on and on. All of these interfere with critical thinking. In the U.S., doing critical thinking brands you as an "intellectual", and we've always been anti-intellectual in this country. What other country in their history has had a political party called the "Know Nothings"? I think for the most part we've inoculated ourselves against Information Overload just by not paying attention.