Jay Bildstein

The Internet is a seemingly limitless repository of articles, essays, notes, ponderings, communiqués and other writings. And, to a large extent, the Internet is dominated by the English language. Clearly, a lot of the information available on the Web is useful. However, plenty is of dubious value. Separating the chaff from the wheat can be an arduous process.

I suspect if nothing new were ever published on the Internet that all of us would have plenty of reading material for the rest of our lives. Yet, new material is put out daily like so many fresh baked donuts served to the public each morning. The Internet is at once information pipeline and information reservoir. New data flows through it every day, as well as recycled data masquerading as new. Then it all ends up sitting there.

What takes place on the Internet is not new per se. What has changed is scale and scope. A bookstore, for example, is a perfect place to see a mix of old and new information being presented to the public. Classic books are perennially available in bookstores. At the same time, new books -which many times are nothing more than old wine in new bottles- find their way to the shelves of those stores and are treated to the promotion of publicists and the acclaim of critics, some critics anyway. At least in the case of a bookstore, the exercise is pursued in the service of making money.

It is the way of the human race that we learn things and invariably need to relearn those same things with each new generation, or in the case of the Internet, every few months. We humans are always searching for the new, even if it is the old pretending to be the new. Some say there is nothing sadder than mutton pretending to be spring lamb. However, if we look hard enough there is always spring lamb to be found. The trick is finding it.

Besides what is new, there are works of literature and erudition that stand the test of time. Masters like Cervantes and Shakespeare come to mind. What also comes to mind is that most of us are not Cervantes and Shakespeare. How then can we go about improving the human knowledge base -in this case via the Internet- without simply recycling the same information over and over again?

The first thing we might do is discipline ourselves. The words of the late, great Austrian psychologist Otto Rank come to mind "... for the time being I gave up writing -there is already too much truth in the world- an over-production which apparently cannot be consumed!" I have made mention of this quote on previous occasions. I continue to reflect on it. If Rank's words were true in the early part of the 20th century they are even truer now.

Of course, most of us feel that what we have to say is of the utmost importance. We take to our blogs, microblogs, bulletin boards and instant messengers busying our fingers -perhaps with minimal involvement of our brains- and we text away. In the old days thumbing meant we were out hitchhiking, seeing our surroundings. Today, thumbing means sitting like fiends typing with our thumbs on personal digital assistants. What are we saying of such great importance?

In short, we text too much and say too little.

In a society were bigger is better and more is more better, is it reasonable to expect that folks will hold off from clogging the Internet with superfluous verbiage? I doubt it. The verbal diarrhea of Chatty Cathy, Yolanda the Yenta, Pontificating Pete and Bloviating Bill has been reduced to endless streams of text, most of it not high value.

I do have a solution for improving the state of information on the Internet beyond simply disciplining ourselves to produce less garbage. It calls for tearing down linguistic barriers. As mentioned, the Internet is dominated by the English language. If, however, we are able to make the thinking of people from non-English speaking countries more accessible, we can share fresh points of view with the world.

The reality is that language goes beyond mere words. Each language presents its unique formula for thinking. By learning how a Spanish speaker thinks, for example, an English speaker can gain new perspectives on any area imaginable. If we want to grow the human knowledge base we have to do it through the translation of languages and meaning, not simply the repackaging of the same thoughts, in the same language, in a different way.

The solution to Internet pollution then is twofold. Firstly, we should share information when we truly feel it will make a positive difference, not simply because we are bored, or habitually addicted to texting. Secondly, we should work to learn from languages other than our own, so we may gain fundamentally different points of view on the human condition. How a native Spanish speaker, or French speaker, or Portuguese speaker looks at the world can help people speaking English, Chinese, Russian, etc. to see and appreciate the world differently.

If you want to broaden your knowledge base go to www.diaday.com, where you can read real, not machine, translations of articles -including this one- presented in both Spanish and English. As always, you can reach us with your questions and comments at info@diaday.com. We look forward to hearing from you.