Sometimes “bad news” is not so bad. The authors of Wired and surely the Pew Research Center for People & the Press probably thought this headline was a sign of the negative impact that the Internet is having on the masses:

Infoporn: Despite the Web, Americans Remain Woefully Ill-Informed

But as I read the article, I realized that it may tell more about the kinds of content that people are choosing to consume. The questions asked by the researchers were predominantly focused on issues related to politics and government.

That people are getting more of their information from the Internet and also now know less about politics does not necessarily imply that they are “ill-informed” but perhaps indicates that people are dissillusioned with government and choosing to spend their time thinking about other things.

This poll indicates such a theory is not far fetched: Voters unhappy with Bush; Congress: Reuters poll

I for one am glad that people are choosing to consume information that they want rather than eating what the media feeds them. Maybe in the future we will have a more widely informed citizenry capable of picking a more representative set of leaders, so that polls could conform to the people rather than the other way around.