Information Overload

I first took the idea about information overload seriously when I read an article by Nicholas Carr in The Atlantic magazine in which he wonders out loud if we are being 'googled to death.' He argues that because of the instant retrieval of information that google provides, we are losing the ability to concentrate over long periods of time.

A recent article featured on the NPR website, Digital Overload: Your Brain on Gadgets, reveals that scientists are rapidly discovering that prolonged exposure to the high volume of information available at our fingertips can impact the way we perceive our world and our sent of time. Several reports state, for example, that the average computer user visits 40 websites a day. Technology journalist Matthew Richtel refers to the phenomenon of retrieving information from so many technological sources (Internet, e-mail, twitter, laptop computers, iPhones, iPads) as "information juggling." All this juggling is making it much easier for us to become distracted.

The author Alain de Botton decries our addiction to all things technological when he writes, "To sit still and think, without succumbing to an anxious reach for a machine, has become almost impossible." He is right. I remember years ago when I was at the lake I saw a couple sit t down at a picnic table across from each other and pull out their laptop computers. They did not speak to each other or notice the beautiful sunset. How sad.

But de Botton has a suggestion: Our minds, no less than our bodies, require periods of fasting.

Simply put we need to disconnect.