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Information is a cornerstone of political education and socialization. The ability to find out about issues of public importance, and the capacity to inform oneself about the workings of government and its policies are examples of how information can be essential to the education of the informed and responsible citizen. Yet in this era of information overload, the subtle but vital difference between information and knowledge needs to be drawn in order to create virtual places that promote political education in the broadest sense. It is not, in fact, information per se which is useful but knowledge, information which has been distilled and contextualized so that it can impart meaning. The Internet is the ultimate reference library, chock-full of data supplied by individuals and institutions from around the world, usually for the free use of all comers. The danger of the Internet is that it threatens to overwhelm us with so much information that, instead of democratizing and enriching our political lives, it is actually drowning us in irrelevancies. Internet users know well that the abundance of informational riches can have a paralytic effect, rendering the viewer helpless to find anything. The huge quantity of information available creates an inverse relationship between speaking and listening, between information and understanding. The more people speak, the fewer people will actually be heard. In fact, the deluge of data ensures that we cannot find anything. It has also the effect of making us even more dependent than in the days before the flood on unaccountable, commercialized search tools and information filters to sort information and make it meaningful. Although these editors are machines, they are not neutral. The values and choices are embedded deep within the code and often not obvious to the user.
In the text, the expressions “comers” (l.15) and “Internet users” (l.19) refer to the same kind of people: those who access the Internet for information.