More is Less?
Two thoughts:
1. Family Disconnect
I was a bit taken aback when my mom asked me tonight how things have been "since we haven't really seen you in a week." But she's right. Between the New York trip, going straight from work to Judo or social events, and going out on weekends, I haven't really spent much time at home at all. I haven't had dinner at home in a while. To be honest, I've actually enjoyed being out doing my own thing. I feel like the pace of life has accelerated a bit and that is an exciting feeling.
2. Information Overload
My parents and I got to talking about the news and news media and I admitted that I have not really been following the news lately at all. Part of that is temporary (heavy work and even schedule plus a 4 days out of town), but a large part has been a gradual shift over the past few months away from news consumption. During the campaign last year I followed it reasonably well. I was not an avid follower, but I read stories each day and listened to NPR on the way to and from work each day. But since the election, I've noticed that I have lost interest. I occasionally listen to NPR while commuting now, but I mostly prefer to enjoy music. I do hit Google news, slashdot, and digg a couple times a day, but a majority of the content I actually read is either fluff or niche/technical. I scan the headlines on the Post over breakfast but I rarely delve into the paper. I miss anything buried beyond the first few pages.
It really comes down to two things: time and content. There is a scarcity of the former and a surfeit of the later.
It really hit me when I was in New York this weekend. Preston took me to an (apparently) famous bookstore called The Strand. Their tagline advertises that they have "18 miles of books" on the shelves of their store. Stop and think about that for a second. 18. Miles. of books. At any one time. And some significant portion of that probably turns over monthly if not more frequently. It is a mind-boggling array of content that actually was rather overwhelming to think about. Our tour of the city had allotted about 30-40 minutes for the Strand. Thirty minutes to glean something memorable out of 18 miles. So we took refuge in the advertising and visual design section and looked at the neat and clever art in the design manuals. There even was a 50 page book entirely about the artwork on Indian fireworks packaging. Indian fireworks packaging. WTF?
To me, the Strand is a physical embodiment of the problem of the information overload facing us today. An 18th century gentleman could probably fit in a space a 3rd the size of the Strand all the major works of literature, philosophy, and science known to European thought since the advent of the written word 4,000 years ago. Today, humanity probably produces that volume of words in the form of books, magazines, newspapers, and blog posts in a week if not a few days. How can we possibly cope with that?
I can reasonably assume that there have been at least a hundred full length books dedicated to the very topic of information overload and how to cope with it. Trouble is, finding and processing that content in the midst of the fire hose is just more effort than I care to spend.
And therein lines the heart of why I have started to pay less attention to the news media. I just have too many other things that I would rather invest my time in: work, play, friends, sleep, and exercise, to name a few. I feel a bit guilty, but it's true. I just don't care that much. Perhaps a lack of current events knowledge makes me a bad person or at least an uninformed one, but I daresay it doesn't make me unique (which I acknowledge is no defense). For better or worse, I think we as a species may have reached the limits of our capacity for information volume. And that means we will have to cope by filtering and relying on trust in "experts", with all the dangers that brings.
Readers Respond:What do you think, dear readers? How do you cope with information overload? What do you think it means for us a society?
1. Family Disconnect
I was a bit taken aback when my mom asked me tonight how things have been "since we haven't really seen you in a week." But she's right. Between the New York trip, going straight from work to Judo or social events, and going out on weekends, I haven't really spent much time at home at all. I haven't had dinner at home in a while. To be honest, I've actually enjoyed being out doing my own thing. I feel like the pace of life has accelerated a bit and that is an exciting feeling.
2. Information Overload
My parents and I got to talking about the news and news media and I admitted that I have not really been following the news lately at all. Part of that is temporary (heavy work and even schedule plus a 4 days out of town), but a large part has been a gradual shift over the past few months away from news consumption. During the campaign last year I followed it reasonably well. I was not an avid follower, but I read stories each day and listened to NPR on the way to and from work each day. But since the election, I've noticed that I have lost interest. I occasionally listen to NPR while commuting now, but I mostly prefer to enjoy music. I do hit Google news, slashdot, and digg a couple times a day, but a majority of the content I actually read is either fluff or niche/technical. I scan the headlines on the Post over breakfast but I rarely delve into the paper. I miss anything buried beyond the first few pages.
It really comes down to two things: time and content. There is a scarcity of the former and a surfeit of the later.
It really hit me when I was in New York this weekend. Preston took me to an (apparently) famous bookstore called The Strand. Their tagline advertises that they have "18 miles of books" on the shelves of their store. Stop and think about that for a second. 18. Miles. of books. At any one time. And some significant portion of that probably turns over monthly if not more frequently. It is a mind-boggling array of content that actually was rather overwhelming to think about. Our tour of the city had allotted about 30-40 minutes for the Strand. Thirty minutes to glean something memorable out of 18 miles. So we took refuge in the advertising and visual design section and looked at the neat and clever art in the design manuals. There even was a 50 page book entirely about the artwork on Indian fireworks packaging. Indian fireworks packaging. WTF?
To me, the Strand is a physical embodiment of the problem of the information overload facing us today. An 18th century gentleman could probably fit in a space a 3rd the size of the Strand all the major works of literature, philosophy, and science known to European thought since the advent of the written word 4,000 years ago. Today, humanity probably produces that volume of words in the form of books, magazines, newspapers, and blog posts in a week if not a few days. How can we possibly cope with that?
I can reasonably assume that there have been at least a hundred full length books dedicated to the very topic of information overload and how to cope with it. Trouble is, finding and processing that content in the midst of the fire hose is just more effort than I care to spend.
And therein lines the heart of why I have started to pay less attention to the news media. I just have too many other things that I would rather invest my time in: work, play, friends, sleep, and exercise, to name a few. I feel a bit guilty, but it's true. I just don't care that much. Perhaps a lack of current events knowledge makes me a bad person or at least an uninformed one, but I daresay it doesn't make me unique (which I acknowledge is no defense). For better or worse, I think we as a species may have reached the limits of our capacity for information volume. And that means we will have to cope by filtering and relying on trust in "experts", with all the dangers that brings.
Readers Respond:What do you think, dear readers? How do you cope with information overload? What do you think it means for us a society?