The core assumption behind information overload is that the information we want is the same as the information we need or like. Therefore, we cannot with good reason cut back on the information we want, because it reflects stuff that is important to us. Hence, thanks to the web we are overloaded with needed information that we can’t help wanting. However, from the perspective of contemporary affective neuroscience, wanting and liking are NOT the same thing, and are governed by entirely different neural processes. Thus, what we want is different from what we need because wanting and liking represent distinctive neurological events. Therefore, the key underlying premise of information overload that everything we want is the same as everything we need is based on cognitive principles that have no basis in neural reality, and the concept of information overload must therefore be abandoned.

The linked article questions the concept of information overload by challenging this most elementary underlying assumption. Based on the work of the distinguished neuropsychologist Kent Berridge of the University of Michigan (who also vetted and endorsed it), it is simple, short, and uses a Boston Red Sox title run to make its very radical point. Hope you ‘like’ it or at the very least the Red Sox!

http://mezmer.blogspot.com/2012/02/searching-for-red-stockings-myth-of.html

In particular instant summarization of Web pages and emails saves quite a bit of time.

We have been working on such a product and it is now in beta trials. If anybody is interested, please visit http://www.contextdiscovery.com. Context Organizer summarizes Web pages – including Google and MSN search results – Word, PDF, Outlook, and RTF documents.

Any comments if this approach is helpful will greatly appreciated.

Best regards,
Henry

I’d like to add one possible suggestion: make an internet list of things to do. I use Wordpad to jot down digital notes. I monitor this list frequently during an online session, to ensure tasks are getting completed. It works just like the old “pen and paper” lists.