Recently, I've been wondering if there is such a thing as too much information. Is it possible to suffer from information overload? I bet if I were to Google this question, I'd get multiple hits regarding the impact of too much information. Admittedly, I very often avoid the news and commentaries simply because I find it all overwhelming.
You see, I grew up as a young girl with newspapers, the evening news with Walter Cronkite, magazines, and good old fashioned word of mouth information. Those were the days of telephone calls, and even party lines.
I learned in school all about our technological advances moving us from the telegraph system to the use of telephones. First the telephones were sparse, not everyone could afford to have the service. This is where the pay phone came into play. People could pay a dime, and later a quarter to call someone. I even remember having to stand in line waiting to use a pay phone. If people were making long distance calls, they would stand with a stack of coins poised and ready to add them when the operator cautioned that the call demanded more money.
My point is, communication came to us slowly, sparsely, and not always with easy access. This meant that talking on the phone was limited, and if you wanted news, you read the paper or watched the evening news.
How markedly different things are today. Now, we are bombarded with information. It comes across our phones and computers that are in our homes, schools, place of business, and vehicles. People even wear communication/information-giving devices on their wrists, on their heads, or in their ears.
News pops up, even if I'm not seeking it. I open my computer and I'm faced with a news banner tempting me to select the link to read the full story, which includes links to more stories. I open my e-mail, and there it is, more news. I drive in my car and the computer speaks up and warns of obstacles or police that are in my path.
Then add the issue of deciding what is true and what is rumor or simply invented by people attempting to sway the viewing or listening audience in a certain direction of thought. It's no wonder that I often feel the need to simply turn off my phone and computer and walk away. My mind can, at times, feel as though it's circling endlessly with all the information.
I have learned to be selective, because all this information has a way of becoming quite literally addictive. I find that I have to force myself to resist opening social media platforms more than once a day, check e-mail every other day, and limit my own screen time.
And so, I Googled (because that is a verb now), "do we have too much information". I got more hits on this than I anticipated. It seems you can even get too much information on receiving too much information. It also turns out there is a word for this information overload, "infotoxication - leading to cognitive strain, stress and anxiety, reduced productivity, and distraction" (A.I. via Google - if we can believe it).
Yes. I have experienced all of these symptoms.
With all of this in mind, I choose to watch news selectively and with time limits, set my phone down and go about my day, and take care not to watch too much programming.
My aging brain is befuddled enough.
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