Information Overload
This is a quick post regarding information overload. I believe that there are many people out there suffering from excess dose of information, or at least this is what they thing is the problem of their sleep deprivation, continues stress and general unhappiness.
The truth is that there is no such thing as Information Overload. In fact, we love information and we can consume as much of it as we want. We cannot get overloaded unless we consume the same type of information, i.e. when there is no information diversity.
For example, if you read 50 newspapers everyday, it is very likely that you will get overloaded, simply because the same type information is dumped into your brain. However, if we visit the local park, we get relaxed although the amount of information we receive is significantly more. The difference is that the information received from 50 newspapers is of the same kind while the information that we receive from a nature is very diversified.
Therefore, your problem is not the overload of information but the lack of information diversity.
I don’t think the problem is necessarily information diversity, but rather a low signal-to-noise ratio.
perhaps
Personally I beleive we suffer from excessive information overflow. The brain get’s tired of always reading, considering commersials and stuff everywhere we go. On the other hand if we are in nature, firstly it’s green and calm, it does not flash red and does not try do get our attention with different noises. It’s restful. The information is good information, not hyperactive information such as internet, TV or such.
/ ricochet
yes, you have a good point
Information is power. More info equals greater power. You have to not only eliminate the noise to news ratio but also consolidate the flood of information to a very narrow stream that is focused on the topics of specific to your interest.
The TheOnion.com or Slashdot.org have lots of info but it is like a shotgun rambling off on thousands of topics. No focus there except when you drill down to a specific category of topics that interest you. And even then there is a lot of garbage blended in compared to solid facts.
SecurityNewsPortal.com provides a focus specifically on security related news. But even within that niche of security news there is room for information overload when you are only interested in topics about vulns, or anonymity or privacy for example. Its great for those who want the full overview of the security scene, but too much noise if you want just news about privacy.
But the problem is that when you go to web sites that are specific to some subgroup of a niche, you often are exposed to the information pickings of one webmaster. Even on a topic like anonymity you end up seeing just the info chosen by that webmaster.
So information overload is good. The trick is to find the sources that give you the most info that you are interested in with the widest dispersement of sources ( to get the maximum overview ).
Thyme, the only thing that comes to my head that could help reduce the noise is the so called but even then I can easily see how something so good and well defined could turn into another information overload.
You are right. Information is power. Especially today. But it is also worth mentioning that more information is not equal to more power. It certainly does not work the way the money system works.
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