I got info…what do I do?

in Me with 2 Comments written by

Today we have so much information it is paralyzing. From the beginning of our lives we have been inundated with information overload. Telling us to buy this, eat this, or go here is an everyday experience. Whether you watch 10 minutes of TV, read a book, listen to music, drive a car, or have a conversation with a human (as opposed to a conversation with your dog, they cannot talk back), we are bombarded with information. Information overload can render us to utter confusion on what to do next.

I love information. I love to learn as much as possible about something. There are never enough blog post written, never enough conversations had, never enough books written about information. I am in a constant state of downloading information to my brain. From 730 in the morning until 1130 at night I consume information. I often wonder if there is a time that I need to shut down?

I like to give my computer a break every once and a while. Instead of putting it to sleep, I will shut it down to rest. Because even when it is asleep the hard drive is still working, power is still being consumed, and the computer is still on. Now if we look at our brains like a giant mega man computer then we see that it needs a shut down time, a chance to detach and take a break. But if you are like me, this is one of the hardest things to do. I mean where do you go to shut down? Everywhere I go I am consuming some form of information. I got the information, but I do not know what to do with it all?

The world is filled with so much information that the right information is being buried in the noise. The actual information that we need to hear often gets mixed in with pointless information that no one really needs to know (like Miley Cirus’s Birthday). I wonder though if  we know so much information that we are more about consuming and less about acting? The statement, “information overload” takes on a whole meaning when you like at the amount of information we are processing. What if we stopped focusing on information and more on content?

Are we content driven or truth driven? For some people it is about giving as much information as possible, and for others it is about giving the right information at the right time. I want to focus more on the right information and less on the amount of information.

Do you ever feel overloaded?

How do you take a break?

*Kyle
BTW: Come back later on a post about google and their mission on information.

About Kyle Reed: I create websites, conversations, and ideas. Advocate for the 20 somethings. Looking to connect everyone to a mentor. I like my coffee black and my dog Jack. I currently live in Nashville and find whatever excuse I can to travel to St. Louis

All Posts by  |  Personal Blog  |  Twitter  |  Facebook  |  Share By Email
  • http://morethanuseless.com Tom

    Social media is weird. As a culture, we've kinda done this to ourselves – we've made information (not necessarily content) more accessible and then we complain that we've done so.

    The thing is, I think we ran headfirst into all this stuff and then we stopped to think about it (rather than doing so the other way around). I'm definitely guilty of it.

    A few weeks ago, I ended up taking stock of all the services I use online and ended up terminating a bunch of accounts to only those that really gave me value (or, as you put it, content).

    To answer your question: I used to feel much more overloaded that I do now. Occasionally it still happens, but when I absolutely need to hyper focus on one thing, I turn off the phone, close any chat clients I have open, and zero in on the task at hand.

    You gotta find a way to synthesize all of this "stuff" so that it works *with you* rather than you forcing yourself to work *with it*.

  • http://intensedebate.com/people/klreed189 Kyle Reed

    I start to see it as a problem for me when I actual "unplug" there have been a couple of days where I have been away from my computer and it really bothered me. I knew that was a problem.

    Interesting that you talk about diving in head first. I was having a conversation with a friend yesterday about this. We were chatting about how fast we blog or tweet about things. I can have a conversation with someone and then want to tweet about it right away. Or i can have a discussion with my family over the weekend and then have that up as a blog post on Monday. It is interesting how we stop processing and really just throw out info.