Making Information Useful

According to scientists, people choose what they know when inundated with too much information.  This makes sense to me.  When faced with too much information, it is easier to go with something you are already familiar with than to sort through all the possible options.  I know that I tend to go back to the same  web site for travel information (www.tripadvisor.com) even though I know there are a lot of other good options out there.  It turns out that people are not alone.  Animals exhibit the same behavior.  An article at insciences.org claims that animals stick with food choices that they know, even when provided with food sources of identical nutritional value.  They may stick with a food source even when it is scare and other, more plentiful, options exist.

So how does this relate to making information useful?  I believe it adds credibility to the argument that too much information is not useful.  Information is only useful when it is filtered down to that which is most relevant.  Once this is done, humans (and apparently most animals) can choose the most optimal option.

The problem is that there is not much out there to help us filter information, so of course, we revert back to what we already know.  The result is that we unfortunately miss out on potentially better information.  That is not very useful.

Update 3/30/09 – Here is a link to a better article