In the modern area, we as a people are constantly being bombarded with information. Whether it’s the classic iPhone “text message” sound, the famous “You’ve Got Mail”, or just someone telling you about the latest episode of Dexter at the bus stop, information is constantly attacking our brains. All is well and good in the information age, but at what point is the amount of information breaching our heads TOO much information?
Everyone has made the mistake: read the entirety of the syllabus for a class, expect you’ve digested all of the information, only to find out when it’s too late that (uh-oh) one highly important piece of information didn’t stick in your brain. We’ve all done it and, hell, I did it today; studying all day for a test due at midnight tonight only to find that it was, in fact, due at 12 NOON, not midnight.
Who’s to blame for missing the information? Maybe you were rushing when you read it? Maybe someone texted you in the middle of reading? Maybe the syllabus is, in fact, too long? There are a million and a half reasons for something like this to fall through the cracks, but in the end it all seems to point to individuals trying desperately to consume all the information they can without actually consuming any full amounts of knowledge.
Where am I getting with this? When your brain works too hard, just like your body, it becomes tired and will not work as well as it should, could, or would. Taking in tons and tons of information every day gives in to the notion that not all information can be secured in your head. At a certain point it will be too much and some is bound to not stick, leading to in the least a small stumble in productivity or at the worst an irreversible mistake (see the BP oil spill).
It’s time to stop giving everything in the world attention and instead give yourself attention. Give yourself the attention you deserve by divvying up the information you intake; focus on one situation or information outlet at a time and really LEARN, not just read. There’s a ton of knowledge to be gained out there, and limited time to soak it all in but in the end, do the headlines or the words underneath them make you a smarter, more well-informed, individual?