😃 What is Infophilia?
Infophilia is a weekly letter about the human love of information. The word comes from the French use of info for information and the Greek word philia meaning love.
Imagine having access to the most cutting-edge insights on the human love of information, straight from the professor who’s spent years studying its intricacies. With Infophilia, you’ll gain a deeper understanding of how information shapes our lives, and how we can harness its power to live happier, smarter, stronger, and longer. As an expert in libraries and information sciences, I’ve dedicated my career to exploring the intersection of technology, culture, and human behavior.
The human relationship with information is undergoing profound changes and it can be powerful or problematic in the Age of Information, Creator Economy, Artificial Intelligence, Era of Post-Truth, Posthumanism, Post Normal, and Post-Typographic Society. People are creating and consuming more information than ever. What are human-information connections and cultures across space, time, and more? Are humans just encoded information? How is information power? Is information a drug? How does information affect health? How does information help people live happier, smarter, stronger, and longer? What is infophilia and how can this help well-being and flourishing, human centered research and development, responsible and sustainable growth of innovation and manufacture of knowledge? These are just some of the questions that drive my thinking about the arts, sciences, humanities, social sciences, and technologies of information beyond its production, creation, distribution, and use. Infophilia newsletter topics range from Artificial Intelligence to Zoom and their impact on human potential, from the rise of digital citizens, digerati and polymaths to integrative interdisciplinary theories and frameworks like infophilic information styles. I am digging beyond the technology pathologies and information disorders, to discover and develop an evo-socio-tech positive psychology of information. Subscribe to get full access to my writings and archive.
Infophilia topics range from Artificial Intelligence to Zoom and their impact on human potential, from the rise of digital citizens, the digerati and polymaths, to integrative interdisciplinary theories and frameworks like infophilic information styles.
🪬 Who am I?
I am an information sciences professor, trained in interdisciplinary research on two different continents, specialized in multiple sides of the information coin, knowledge organization, information behaviors, systems, human-computer interaction, and an experienced and critical participant of information and communication technologies and cultures. I’m a naturalized American who’s lived most of her life in a planned, technological, coastal, southern California city, founded 50 years ago, in the 1970s; ancestral lands of the Acjachemen who believe they’ve lived here since the beginning of time. Archaeological evidence shows human settlement for 10,000 years. I was born in a temple city that traded with the Chinese, Greeks, and Romans and I grew up on the shores of another beach city, part of a large metropolitan area in south India. The evidence for human presence in India is very complex. Archaeological evidence indicates that early humans inhabited parts of India as far back as 300,000 years ago, while my hometown, Madras (now Chennai), a coastal city in South India on the Bay of Bengal, Indian Ocean, was officially founded approximately 400 years ago. However, this area also has a much longer history of human habitation, with ancient villages and settlements dating back thousands of years. Multiple cultures and civilizations living over a longer time span make it difficult to attribute continuous occupation to a single group in Chennai, in the same way we can for the Acjachemen.
A Special Note to Librarians and Information Scientists
Drawing from multiple disciplines, cultures, languages, and societies, this is one of the places where I’m developing the adaptive infophilia theory and framework, an evolutionary, social, positive psychology of information, avant garde research. Infophilic information styles along a spectrum is the first demonstration of this grand theory for library and the information science.
🫵🏾 Why subscribe?
Infophilia uses a subscription model. No ads. No sponsors. No affiliate marketing. Just 100% trusted human created, fact checked, verified, content. You have three choices for paid subscriptions and September 2024 - August 2025 rates are:
Monthly ($6 per year)
Annual ($60 per year)
Founding member (minimum $200 per year).
Benefits for all three levels of paid subscriptions are the same - regular newsletter, full archive access, and ability to comment on my weekly letters.
Founding members (minimum $200 per year) are those, institutional and individual, who want to support my writings even further by contributing an extra gift. Names will be listed on a Founding members page, if you want it displayed, followed by the year of membership.
Readers on the free plan receive free previews occasionally and full text sometimes. Please consider upgrading to receive the full posts every week. If my writings help you stay informed, consider expensing it with your continuing education / professional development funds.
➡️ Rates will probably go up as of Sept. 1, 2026.
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Information is vital for individual and collective well-being. The accelerating evolution of information and communication technologies is changing humankind. While some people are surrounded by a ubiquitous digital landscape, millions lack basic access. However, our shared, universal human love of information and connections, can be harnessed to build inclusive and sustainable global digital cultures. Join a community with shared interests. I am thrilled to have you on board and excited by our journey together.
