I’ve heard a lot about information overload lately and how it’s killing our productivity. How we get analysis by paralysis or are all suffering from A.D.D. In short, this notion is absolutely ridiculous.
I can understand that some people may have trouble adapting to the sudden influx of information readily available to us, but the problem isn’t too much information, the problem is we don’t know what to do with it.
More importantly, it’s become clear that information is going to continue growing exponentially and become more and more accessible.
So how can information overload be a myth? Because we are now beginning to understand how to handle all of this information in two clear ways.
1. Organization Of Information
With the exponential increase in information, there was no real way to organize it, which was the first major challenge encountered.
Now, we’ve started to create structures and filters around our information in the form of reviews and curators and search engines, all of which make it easier to both filter and access the information we NEED.
This is the key point – there has always been a lot of information available, but all of a sudden we had access to all of it through the internet.
As we further develop tools and platforms, the organization of this information allows us to use it much more effectively and efficiently.
2. Adaptation To Information
The second piece of the puzzle is adapting to the new standard of information surplus, which I believe the next generation will be masters at.
For example, just look at how a kid does homework nowadays. Music is blasting, the TV is on, they’re texting their friends, and browsing Facebook – all while writing a paper on American History or doing Calculus homework.
They’ve adapted and embraced the excess information at such a young age that the idea of information overload becomes laughable.
It’s clear that information will continue to grow, but our organization of it and adaptation to it, makes the thought of information overload a myth.
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