Information Cocoon

The article of choice for this here particular blog is entitled “Information Cocoons." The majority of readers know what information is, but for those who do not, here is a very simple definition to go by: information is facts provided or learned about something or someone. A definition for cocoon would probably get too scientific for what I am going for right now. So off the top of my head, a definition you can use is the enclosed shell that caterpillars are inside while they transform into butterflies.  When information and cocoon are used together, it creates for me a picture of information that is stuck inside an enclosed barrier. That is what the majority of the article concerns. The article defines an Information Cocoon as “communication universes in which we choose and only what comforts, and pleases us.” The article had a couple points that I felt were very informational. Two philosophers, James Fishkin and Bruce Ackerman, suggested that we have a national holiday in which we have big group deliberations and name it Deliberation Day. Irving Janis did research on groupthink, defined as “the practice of thinking or making decisions as a group in a way that discourages creativity or individual responsibility.” He stated that groupthink would be the reason that Deliberation Day would never work. People become less creative in groups due to informational influences (failure to disclose what they know out of respect for the information publicly announced by others) and social issues (people silencing themselves to avoid the disapproval of peers and supervisors). This article was very informational.