Be Cautious About Information Overload and Fatigue

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information overload

FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) is one true feeling the information world leaves us with daily when we sleep. And we often wake up every morning with the same emotion. Don’t we need to take one step back and think whether we need all the information we are trying to process? Is it good or bad for your brain?

Information media challenges our brains with information overload every moment we are awake. Studies say that we process 75 GB of data inside our brains daily, which is equal to watching 16 movies. Authors Anne Francoise Rutkowski and Carol S. Saunders call it the dark side of information technology. Former Google design ethicist Tristan Harris observed that smartphones are like cigarettes, but we ignore the harm because of the benefits (unlike cigarettes). He also reminded everyone that smartphones are eroding human thought. 

Studies show that the use of social media increases our chances of falling into depression and social isolation. But what exactly is this information overload doing to our brain? 


Information addiction and overload go hand in hand. Never before in human history has the human brain done so much work at so fast a pace?  As a result, different words evolved to describe the emotional and cognitive state that we are in - information anxiety, infobesity (just like physical obesity), technostress, and information fatigue.


A few side effects include stress, headache, anxiety, depression, stomach problems, high blood pressure, heart disease and an attention deficit state of mind. Loss of productivity, inability to focus, and inefficiency are other associated problems. 


The key to coping with this menace is the skill of filtering and avoiding excess information. One must train oneself to use information resources selectively and mindfully. Satisficing is another strategy recommended to reduce information overload and its impact on physical and mental health. Satisficing is all about finding the optimal path to access and use information using tools such as filtering and withdrawal. 


 Experts advise us to slow down, understand, forget, and destroy a part of the information we gather. These are all normal brain functions, and we need not feel insecure, guilty or anxious about them. 


Not everyone has their minds wired in the same way to handle too much information. Choosing what is comfortable for you individually is important. Remember, even an expert in a particular field cannot possibly read or study the full information in their domain even in a lifetime. There is a life to live too outside all this information- a life full of sunlight, bird songs, dancing, walking, friendship, love, people, and creative work.  


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