Print did not simply spread knowledge; it flooded Europe with contradictory texts and forced the invention of tools we still rely on — indexes, page numbers, citations and bibliographies.
The complaint is old
Sixteenth-century writers described a confusing abundance of books in language nearly identical to modern worries about feeds and timelines.
Filters followed the flood
Catalogues, encyclopaedias and reviews all emerged as filtering technologies. Every information boom eventually builds its own sorting layer.
