The title of the first section of the Barabási reading – Small Worlds – got me thinking. Sure, little debate remains on whether the internet has given us more information than we’ve ever had before, but has this expanse of information made our world bigger or smaller?

At first thought, it would seem that the world has become a bigger place overtime. We know more about it now than our great, great grandparents did. Perhaps their world was limited to the country they grew up in, or even the state or city/town in which they lived. Is it reasonable therefore to assume that, due to our vast increase in knowledge of and communication with the rest of the world, our world is now “bigger”?

But perhaps the web of knowledge that we can now possess has shrunk our world? Are we bogged down under an expanse of information so vast that we cannot see the world for the effortless marvel that it is? Are we overlooking it? Taking it for granted? Perhaps not. This may be stretching the idea a bit far. But I think it worth the thought.