EDITORIAL
What happened to the information highway?
We live in an age, I keep hearing, in which all of us are constantly connected. We're addicted to social media, chained to our cell phones, never off-line, never "on break." We devote hours of every day to "screen time." We sleep with our cell phones by our bed, and can't shop, drive, take a walk or watch a TV show without them. If we're not on the Internet, we're never out of earshot of a TV--TVs are literally everywhere--and our thoughts are interrupted every few minutes by an "alert" from our phones.
So why is it that never has it been harder to reach people or find information?
People have phones, but they don't answer them. You can leave a message, but you won't get a return call. You can text people, but you won't get a reply. I usually have to call people at least four times before I finally can talk to them. And then they can't answer my question, promise to call me back...and never do.
I've been working on making the Courier an information center, a place for people in Winchendon to find things they need to know about their town and what's going on here. I really didn't anticipate that it would be as downright hard as I'm finding it to be!
We have all sorts of organizations and groups here in town doing great stuff--the library, the Council on Aging, the CAC, the History and Cultural Center, scout troops, the school booster groups, just for example. And we have non-profit organizations doing fundraising events and activities who really need to promote themselves and their events.
But trying to collect information about all of these groups and organizations so I can add it to the Courier is making me feel like Harry Potter wandering around the country hopelessly looking for horcruxes.
Even when I find the information, it's not complete. Facebook "events" with a space limit...and I can't tell if the event is filled or not. Flyers that don't give an address or location for the event, or where and how to buy tickets. Events that are mentioned once on a Facebook page and never referred to again. Events that aren't mentioned at all, until they're over!
It seems to me that people organizing activities often take the view that everyone who would be interested in their event is part of their group already and doesn't need to know more about it. Or that posting a few flyers around town and making a Facebook "event" or sharing a post will somehow broadcast the news to the entire world.
But it doesn't work that way. Never have we been so overloaded with meaningless noise (sound bytes, memes, shares, tweets) and so lacking in actual information. Someone moves into town--how do they find out what the local businesses are, how to register to vote, what to do with their trash, what can their kids do after school? They have to look in a hundred different places. There isn't a business directory. There isn't even a town phone book anymore.
But here is the big question: how can we ever feel like a community if we don't share a base of common knowledge about who we are and what we're doing? How can we expand our little bubbles and learn how to talk to each other? There is so much to do in this town, it's mind-boggling. Let's not keep it a secret!
Inanna Arthen