Information overload

Kester has a provocative post on why he's bored with blogging and bored with the "emerging conversation". Much of his frustration would seem to be down to the volume of information that is being produced thus it seems like everyone is in a crowded room trying to talk over each other rather than listen and reflect.

James Potter in Media Literacy notes that "more information has been generated since you were born than the sum total of all information throughout all recorded history up until the time of your birth". So by way of example, "the amount of information produced in 2002 alone is 500,000 times the amount of all the holdings in the Library of Congress", which is around 19 million books.

So how do we deal with all this information? Should we disengage, opt-out or can we develop strategies to protect ourselves from information overload in a way that allows us to experience new things, enter new conversations but in a way that is actually life enhancing? More thoughts on this soon (DV).

Comments

[Wulf Forrester-Barker]

One solution is to hold onto the knowledge that there has always been far more going on in the world that one person can keep track of, even if not so much was written down or holding the promise of being in reach; most things you need will still be there tomorrow so you can afford to live deep rather than just wide.

[jason77]

Read things as they interest you, thats how I do it. BTW I am moving me blog and I see you still got facebook..go ahead and add me if you want..email me for the info

[Paul]

info overload can be a killer, so i think we need to manage it rather than be killed by it :)

[fernando]

Blogreading is starting to tire me a bit these days. There's at least three things I can identify that contribute this. First, quite a few blogs hover around a small group of subjects (e.g., the emerging church) and thus contribute little that is new or insightful. Second, a number of blogs, perhaps following some "recipe for success," post in a way that invites comment but offers little of the blogger themselves (e.g., the "tell me what YOU think" style of blogging). Third, as elitist as this might sound, a lot of blogs are poorly written.

I think there is little we can do other than disengage at times and filter more frequently.

But, I also wonder in what ways it might pay to engage more. Perhaps blogging is on the wan and what is left for those of us that choose to stay in the game is to up the ante, improve the quality and actually converse?

[brodie]

Wulf, Jason and Paul - yes guys I think part of the answer is in becoming "media literate", and developing ways in which to deal with all this information.

[brodie]

Fernando - I think in your last comment you touch upon why so many of us started to blog in the first place, i.e. to actually converse, but to converse outwith our normal narrow frame of associates.

So for me, while I also at times tire of both reading and writing, I want to stick at it because....well those who comment and those whose blogs I read have become friends, albeit a particular kind of friend.