I suppose the effect for me is quite similar... I find myself increasingly out of touch with the world because I don't follow "the news" and the time factorinvolved in digging around and doing personal in-depth research on every story that sounds interesting doesn't work with my required work schedule needed to simply pay the bills and buy food.

And I am not alone in that... it makes a lot of us more and more ignorant "out of necessity;" that necessity being basic survival.