my.yahoo.com analysisThis is a featured page

Boasting that the site is “only you”, my.yahoo.com only contains information that the user decides to insert into it. If you have a yahoo sign name, after logging in, the user can put any type of information he or she pleases and only that information is available while visiting it. The entire website is personalized to the user and so not only is there absolutely no unnecessary information that the user does not want, it is nothing but information the user asks for. I believe my.yahoo.com to be the perfect antithesis of the type of data smog Shenk focuses on in “The First Law of Data Smog”. My.yahoo.com takes all the benefits of information technology that Shenk discusses and amplifies them. A wealth of information has been responsible for people generally being healthier, being more tolerant, and giving everyone a larger sense of freedom. The first time the site is visited, there is a large variety of information offered to the user. The main window is of world news informing the user of different types of stories happening around the world; it does not just focus on American foreign affairs either. It is simply a report of any type of struggle that is important to world history. This in itself promotes tolerance and potentially could reduce ignorance by educating those that only receive the morning news. It also includes small bits of information like weather, the latest medical breakthroughs, and a list of default links that yahoo.com offers generally. All of these contribute to the continuing health of the user by forewarning him or her of the events of today and the future that are potential threats to that health. Finally, after reviewing the information and distinguishing what is desirable and what is not, the user has the wonderful ability to add and/or subtract anything the user deems necessary. This specific sense of freedom is exactly what makes the site the complete opposite of data smog, according to Shenk. Shenk’s main concern is that the amount of information being produced is growing much faster than people can process creating an information discrepancy, or processing deficit. It is my belief that the creators of my.yahoo.com kept this fact in mind while putting together the default form of the site. When the user first logs in, if the default filled up several pages, trying to showcase the amount of information that fits on the website, it would have completely defeated the purpose of having it in the first place. My.yahoo.com does not exist to be able to give you any information possibly necessary; that is the purpose the internet serves. It exists to display only the information that a user wishes to view regularly and to access quickly at any point in time. My.yahoo.com is there to counteract the abundance of information and provide you with the exact amount of information that will satisfy the user. It is the filter between the internet’s never-ending supply of information and what the user actually needs. No longer does the user have to put up with wading through the smog to get to the good stuff. Another problem Shenk found with the abundance of information was that every nook of our world is filled with information, resulting in a lack of space that is blank, quiet, or silent. Although my.yahoo.com is a site which its purpose is to provide information to the user, I believe it to be the supporting reason why anyone who uses it will finally be able to achieve that silence in their busy, daily schedule. When I get the time to peruse the internet, if I did not have my.yahoo.com, “glancing at the internet” would be impossible. To get all the information I receive on that one site, I would have to visit over 10 websites and in doing so would probably find other tangents to follow and get distracted by. With my.yahoo.com, I am able to get the weather, find out the latest in Iraq, Sudan, and the DPRK, see which celebrity couple is splitting up now, and hear the latest on the seventh Harry Potter book. I am able to do all this and more because one website controls and filters the data smog for you so you can get that one moment of silence. My.yahoo.com proves that it takes information to control information and if that sounds ironic or oxymoronic, than maybe it is. But because I do get my moments of silence, I am a confirmed believer. Shenk writes that an abundance of information is causing a decrease in productivity, higher levels of stress, and is harming us through strained attention spans. My.yahoo.com breaks through this skeptical analysis by being a source of information that in fact counteracts all of these destructive side effects and provides the opposite: quick, informing, handy data that serves to aid you in your infinite search for down time.


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Kmartinez 		Latest page update: made by Kmartinez , Feb 15 2007, 9:23 AM EST (about this update About This Update Kmartinez 2nd analysis - Kmartinez

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