Information literacy

"Data is not information,
Information is not knowledge,
Knowledge is not understanding,
Understanding is not wisdom."

"Spending an evening on the World Wide Web is much like sitting down to a dinner of Cheetos,
two hours later your fingers are yellow and you're no longer hungry, but you haven't been nourished." (Cliff Stoll)

About ten odd year ago, when I started to test the water of the Internet, I was blown away by the power of the internet and spent considerable time in front of the computer. Those days, if there had been anyone who asked what my hobby was, I would have answered with no hesitation it was hunting and surfing. Of course I meant surfing the internet and hunting information. Most websites I visited then was those of prestigious newspapers and magazines. I never felt I wasted my precious time on looking for and reading a series of useless information.

Recently, I put off web searching as last measure for informaiton seeking. I think it is because of the astounding number of websites that have no meandingful content. I agree that we have the explosion of non-information. These days, I start informaiton gathering from primary sources and printed materials, which also helps my web searching more efficient in both time spent and search results gained. I think it is because I have formed a clear idea of my information needs while I am researching with printed materials. One of prominent advantages of printed resources is that information in a book is given in a meaningful way--on a continuum and spectrumof topics, while on the web it is often fragments of informaiton on a certain topic. I have to spend considerable time in putting them in order and context to get meaning. On the Web, it is highly likely to get data, the processing of which into information and knowledge is upon me. In the book, I often come across information that I can easily turn into knowledge and understanding.