As a writer for the web, I’m well acquainted with information overload. One bit of information leads to five facts, which leads to three articles, which leads to an interesting interview you must listen to right now, which leads to 10 pages in your browser.
I’ve always loved the scavenger hunt research requires. Every clue leads to another. Every clue uncovered is a prize in itself: learning something new and interesting and getting one step closer to the carrot (such as the answer to your original question).
But there’s always one more thing to look up, learn and digest.
Whether your livelihood lives online — like mine — or not, you probably use the Web quite a bit. The Internet makes research a breeze. Want to know what triggered the World Wars or how the states got their shapes? Want to know how to bake a tasty tilapia or buy a reliable used car?
Information is merely a click — or, more accurately, a Google search — away. Depending on your query, there’s likely at least a dozen, if not hundreds, of blogs on the topic, a similar number of books and many more articles.
This is a good thing, but it also can overburden our brains.
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It’s not just an information overload problem. It’s also a matter of “information overconsumption”. A lot of people choose to just consume and consume over and over again without filtering out things.
There’s a book called “The Information Diet” that talks about this. You can visit the book’s website at http://www.informationdiet.com
For me,I take a break and breathe deeply at intervals in order for me to regain perspective. By taking a break, I restrain myself from the tendency to keep on working on whatever I am doing mindlessly. This is how I cope with information overload.
To be intellectually curious in the digital information age is a curse. Yes, too much of anything is just too much, except maybe good whiskey (to borrow a phrase from Mark Twain that I just now found online
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