eLearning Recipes

I wish I was clever enough to have come up with the term Infovore, but I’m not. It’s been used by authors, researchers, and marketers for more than a decade. Sadly, it isn’t a part of mainstream discussion about how our tools have changed us, which is a shame. There are dramatic changes happening and we lack the vocabulary to discuss them.

My undergrad degree is in anthropology. It’s always been a lens I use to view the world. From the anthropologist’s point of view, hunting and gathering information is a primal urge. Our instincts give us the hunger for food, the drive to reproduce, and the need for a roof over our heads, but smarts are just as important to our survival.

How long can you go without a phone? I can’t go more than a few hours. I’m an Infovore. These days we rely on the Internet and social media the way an herbivore depends on vegetables.

We feed on status updates from our Facebook friends. We digest online articles, blogs, and newsletters about our favorite topics. We snack on bites of information whenever we get the chance. Cravings for information can be overpowering.

Am I the only one who’s ever picked up their smart phone while driving… even though I know it’s dumb?

Are you an Infovore?

If you’re reading this deep into a site called eLearning Recipes let’s face it, you are. You’re more likely to go by the term Lifelong Learner, or Knowledge Worker, but you’re what others would call an Infovore. You’re used to feeding on information.