The tipping point - Overwhelmed by information
I was thinking... have we come to a point where the information flow does more damage than good?
Let's put things into perspective. It all started with the invention of that marvelous invention of the PC. A brilliant machine which helped you write, read and send information. As the information was scattered and not easily transferred among people, the idea came to build a system that takes all that information and puts it into one place-> Internet. Does someone remember the good old days where the goal was accessibility NOT manipulation? They are indeed distant... After the search engine came into play which indexed the information and made it more accessible to the average person due to a simple interface backed by an algorithm which kept improving in providing more accurate search results based on words, sentences and images, we thought sky is the limit. And that 'point' was where we slowly but surely started losing control of it all.
As with most man created tools, the potential was immense. Education could expand to any levels and was made available to anyone that had an internet connection.
Services were slowly but surely started to shift in online and everything was made available almost instantly. Companies like Amazon capitalized on it offering delivery in days - day - hours and the customers could not even remember a time when a delivery lasted 1 week. Do you? There was an interesting sketch by Ronny Chen (Comedy Central) which presented really good the expectation that we have now due to the system made for us to consume. The question is...do you really need everything that you bought?
Let's take three of the systems and the state and benefit which they present now after the information revolution:
1. Education
2. Social Media
3. Media
1. Education
If you have all information on the tips of your finger it must be easy to learn whatever you want and whenever you want. Right?
The problem which we face is that the structures on which you could base your learning are so volatile that your learning can become obsolete in 5 years. One could argue that "it was always the same and learning is a never ending process" which I 50% agree but we need to understand the expectations set by the system. Learning is no longer a lifetime process in which an Expert rises after 20 Years of investing in the technology segment in which he is passionate about. It is done fragmented in years, maybe months with expectation that after training you also have encompassed the practical know how to be fully sufficient. There a a very limited amount of people which are capable of doing this. You need time to get the experience needed and no amount of training can give you that in a couple of months.
A second aspect is that our minds are capable to learn new things also in the old age, but the speed on which something can be learned is significantly decreased. It is not a hypothesis, it is a fact of life, which even though in your 20' seems far away, it needs to be factored as you won't life forever and your body will age. You are setting the stage for an older you that you won't recognize fully in 30 years. Other priorities will arise, your capacity of short and concentrated bursts of learning will diminish considerably and your vision how you want to spend your time will change. But then won't you become obsolete for a company which expects fast and now?
2. Social Media
That is an interesting topic on which I will write also a separate article but let's try to remain in the realm of overwhelmed by information.
Facebook, Instagram(same company), Whatsapp(same company), Snapchat, Twitter and so on are offering services based on one hand on our natural desire to socialize and connect and second on the Endorphin kick which each system provides when we get acknowledged.
In the case of the biggest network from the list, you start by connecting with your most loved ones. Then you find friends and old friends with which you did not connect since a long time. Then there are also persons which liked your photos and want also to connect. Then...
A pattern arises which for the platform is very fruitful as the more connected you are the harder it is to jump out of the wagon, but for you is it really all necessary? Have you found yourself wondering "Who the hell is that in my list?" "Oh this post is really bad, I should unfollow her\him". These are signals that your network is no longer the friendly place which you initially created but an overcrowded network which takes (a lot of) our time to manage and instead of giving us the satisfaction of connecting becomes a "Check the neighbor backyard" sort of thing.
3. Media
TV was part of our lives since it appeared and has given us a window opening to the world. You had all the information that you needed in a simplified form.No need for reading newspapers or books; information has shifted to analog and then digital and the interest of doing research of checking a topic decreased. After Internet arise that information flow exponentially grow and became more diluted and insecure (TV is not excluded from this also).
I would argue that you need more than 30min a day to get your news about the world and even that amount of minutes begs the question for what? We think we manage all that events worldwide and what happened in distant lands with no connection to us whatsoever. We have the impression that the climate change problem will be solved by watching the news and debate about. We believe that the headlines which are most important today, will remain so also in the distant future.
Take a minute (or 30) and tell me what major headlines do you remember from 3 months ago. Not only the headline but also the finished article or media piece where a conclusion is presented. How many do you remember?
We have access to all that information but if we can't remember 10% of it does it makes sense to enroll in that cycle of information? Not suggesting that "ignorance is a bliss" here (even though I have countless examples which seem to work :) ) but we need to be more pragmatic on what we can get and manage from it all.
We try to do it , to leave our children and grandchildren a better world solving all Earths problems - but the Earth is too big for our brain to handle. Our focus should be targeted on manageable things, in small batches. You can then finish what you start and get that accomplishment feeling while doing it. An example would be , buying an electric car and recycling your garbage is doable and within your grasp but solving the war happening on the other side of the world or world hunger is not. [only if that is what your job is :) ]
Focusing on everything what happens is contra productive and pretty much cannot be done. You can always try but let me know how that worked for you and with what consequences.
Find the balance that works for you...find your limits in processing information and remove everything else.
"Never let the noise of the world overpower the stillness of your soul."
Until next time, TFG