Critical Reasoning

Travel agents are market intermediaries who make their living by gathering, organizing, and dispensing information about travel-related services that is not readily available to most consumers through new information technologies, such as the internet much of this information can now be made directly available to consumers. Demand for the services of travel agents will be drastically reduced.

Which of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the argument?

A. Travel agents routinely use the internet and other new information technologies as sources for the information they obtain for their customers.
B. The amount of information available through the internet and other new information technologies is increasing faster than the capabilities of most consumers to process it
C. Many people use travel-related services, such as airlines and hotels without consulting a travel agent.
D. The people who currently use the services of travel agents are also those most likely to gain access to new information technologies
E. The internet and other new information technologies are currently used by a relatively small proportion of the population

Confused b/w B and D . Experts please help

D strengthen the arg. B most strongly weakens the arg saying that customers cannot process the info because of too much info so they will contact a travel agent.

jainrahul1985 wrote:Travel agents are market intermediaries who make their living by gathering, organizing, and dispensing information about travel-related services that is not readily available to most consumers through new information technologies, such as the internet much of this information can now be made directly available to consumers. Demand for the services of travel agents will be drastically reduced.

Which of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the argument?

A. Travel agents routinely use the internet and other new information technologies as sources for the information they obtain for their customers.
B. The amount of information available through the internet and other new information technologies is increasing faster than the capabilities of most consumers to process it
C. Many people use travel-related services, such as airlines and hotels without consulting a travel agent.
D. The people who currently use the services of travel agents are also those most likely to gain access to new information technologies
E. The internet and other new information technologies are currently used by a relatively small proportion of the population

Confused b/w B and D . Experts please help

Jain, I think you're missing a step in the CR method. In most of your posts, you are debating between the right answer and another answer that is either completely irrelevant, or actually does the opposite of what you need. The way to avoid that is to clarify to yourself what the right answer should do before looking at the answer choices. From now on, you are forbidden to even look in the direction of the answer choices before you have a vague idea of what you're looking for.

Seriously now: the key for most CR questions is to try and predict what the right answer should do BEFORE you look at the answer choices. If you have an idea, and find an answer choice that does that or says that in different words, then that's the right answer. Go through the other answer choices to make sure, but be aggressive in your POE - don't let any answer choice that uses the same words as the passage distract you from your notion of what the right answer DOES.

Here, the argument again seems solid: Travel agents provide information, but people can now get that information themselves through the internet. Remind me why do we need travel agents anymore?

And yet, we are required to weaken the argument - to show that travel agents are still needed. Think "what could make this argument wrong?" "If I can get the info myself, why do I need a travel agent?" What can a travel agent do that I can't?

Well, it's his job, for one. The agent has the time to really search through the information and find me the best deals - something I don't have the time to do, because I have MY job to deal with. Also, the agent has the expertise and experience - he knows what he's looking for. He can do the searching job in half the time it would take me to do it, because he already recognizes patterns that I don't.

So in short, I'm looking for an answer choice that says that the travel agent is still useful - he has the time to search, and the expertise to do it faster that I can. With this reasoning in mind, B becomes the obvious choice: it explains why we need travel agents even though we have access to the info ourselves - there's just too much info for us mortals to cope.

D does the opposite - it tells us that the travel agent is indeed obsolete, as the people who use them are exactly those tech-savvy enough not to need using them from now on.

+1 for B.
The way i tackled (and as Geva explained marvelously) is to think: why agent's service is still INDISPENSIBLE despite coming of new information technologies. They must be expert/has edge over common man which makes them a MUST for the kind of services they provide and people need.