by Deborah C. Sawyer

About the author: Deborah C. Sawyer is president of Information Plus, a research service firm, and the author of Sawyer's Success Tactics for Information Businesses.

The preponderance of false and misleading information on the Internet, coupled with a declining ability to think critically, spells big trouble ahead.

According to many who predict the future, we will all sit at computers to work, play, shop, socialize, and more. Such futurists describe this scenario in glowing terms, but those of us who work hands-on with information content disagree. The way people request, process, and use information suggests that we are moving in a troubling direction.

What many of the techno gurus overlook, in sketching their design for the future, is human nature. On the cusp of the twenty-first century, eight catalysts of chaos are preparing to...