Way Too Much Information

“In the Information Age, the first step to sanity is FILTERING. Filter the information: extract for knowledge.

Filter first for substance. Filter second for significance. These filters protect against advertising.

Filter third for reliability. This filter protects against politicians.

Filter fourth for completeness. This filter protects against the media.” 

― Marc Stiegler

Life today is a big dose of TMI. Or WTMI.

Way Too Much Information.

We talk about dangerous qualities of information, but no one talks about the dangers of the quantity of information. 

I like what Greg McKeown says that applies in this context: 

"You cannot overestimate the unimportance of practically everything."

The news is WTMI. So is most all of what passes for entertainment. 

Social media? WTMI. It doesn't matter who is wearing underwear and who isn't. 

Avoiding information overload and simplifying the mental environment is critical if one is to maintain their sanity. 

Here are a few things that work for me.

1. Ignore irrelevant information (which is most of it).

More than misinformation or malformation or disinformation, keep in mind the dangers of being swamped in irrelevant information.

2. More is not necessarily better. 

Be discerning when selecting information sources, and set limits. An overwhelming number of choices leads to mental paralysis.

3. Choose activities carefully.

Time and energy are limited and precious. Use them wisely.

4. Quit.

Stop engaging in things that don't improve quality of life.

Also widely recommended are things that help reset and reprogram your brain. 

Here we find exercise/movement, sleep, hydration, and spending time in nature.

Another brain reset activity is spending time alone doing nothing, which is the ultimate cure for information overload.

Finally, I am forced to consider that perhaps reading a blog about information overload is information overload...

 

 

Going TV-Free

Must...turn...TV...off...and...get...it...out...of...house.

For much of our time together Linda and I have not had a TV, but we have had one for the past several years. For most of that time it did not get used much. It wasn't because we didn't like TV, but because we liked it too much. We knew to be wary of its mesmerizing, time-sucking qualities.

Since we have never had cable, we usually only had one fuzzy channel, our national broadcaster, the CBC. Our viewing time was minimal.

Then I got the bright idea of hooking up the TV to the cable outlet just to see what would happen. Big mistake - about 10 free channels came in clearly, and they immediately began their near-irresistible screen seduction. We were drawn in and soon the remote was never far away.

As viewing time increased, so did our exposure to advertising, and programming that is advertising thinly disguised as 'entertainment'. HGTV, MTV, and programs like My Super Sweet 16, where clueless kids born into wealth throw lavish, over the top parties for themselves, were perversely hypnotic.

Television pushes 'the good life' on passive viewers 24 hours a day. I didn't like how quickly I became one of those slack-jawed vessels. It was scary looking in to the dark side, a skewed view of the world where everyone wants more everything as soon as possible.

Eventually we started to feel tainted by what we were seeing on our mass-indoctrination device. Advertising and excessive lifestyles - and damn the consequences - plus all the negative news, were like dystopic hallucinations.

We had to ask, "Is owning a television adding quality to our lives?" It did not take long to arrive at our answer - "No."

We changed our minds several times, but when it came time to retire our microwave recently, we garnered our bravery and gave away our TV at the same time. We are feeling much better now.

The time that has been freed up will be spent in activities that do add quality to our lives - listening to music, reading, cooking, napping, getting outside, singing and playing guitar, enjoying nature, gardening, and participating in real life with our friends, family and community.

"So, please, oh please, 

we beg, we pray,

go throw your TV set away, 

and in its place you can install, 

a lovely bookcase on the wall.  

~Roald Dahl

Too Much Information

We have reached the end of another broadcast day...

I remember a simpler time with fewer distractions.

It was a wonderful moment in my life when there was no internet, and TV stations ended the broadcast day at midnight. 

The madness actually stopped, replaced with a test pattern, and a sine wave tone.

Today we are constantly bombarded with information, images, and sounds. All day, every day. 

If TV stations still stopped broadcasting at midnight today people would do what they should be doing - sleep.

It has been a while since futurists have been predicting a 24 hour world where nothing ever closes. Why would we want that? 

Just in case you feel like shopping between 3:00 and 5:30 AM and don't want to be inconvenienced by shuttered, dark stores?

Go to bed, and let the shop keepers sleep, too. 

We don't need a 24 hour world. What we really need is a 12 hour world. The other 12 hours we can forget about doing and concentrate on being.

There are holdouts in some places where stores are still closed on Sundays, the people preferring to keep at least one day a week free of the preoccupation of endless commerce. 

North Americans see see an average of 3000 ads per day, and make hundreds of decisions per hour. 

We can use some of those decisions to limit the amount of information we take in. 

Too much information in our lives has negative consequences for our mental well being. 

We can choose to end the broadcast day. 

We can make it stop.