Information Overload

Information Overload affects us all. We have an overabundance of data coming through our lives. Data in, data out. We also produce a lot of data. But how much of it is important? Even more interesting, how do we decide between good information and bad information?

I wish that we were taught this in school. I certainly wasn't, but I was in the early generation of people who lived through the birth of the internet and actually remember it.

In 1992, I was 12 years old and in junior high school. By the time I was in high school, in 1994, everyone was talking about ICQ and the WWW. Soon, mp3s were around (and FREE, remember that?!?!?) and I got my hotmail account and suddenly, I was connected. I have been so ever since.

I wonder about the quality of that connection, however. Yeah, I work with people all over the world now in my job as an international site manager at Microsoft, and yeah, instant communication is important, but it's my whole life!

I want to stop the instant everything-Sometimes... I know we need it and that's important. But when is off time? I come home from working on a website to check e-mail, IM friends, work on my website and play with my new computer. I also read books and go to school, but not all of that is pleasure. Sometimes, just watching a movie is the most relaxing thing, but even that is technology-related.

Technology brings us closer, but it also isolates us. Maybe going for a walk is the best thing I can do for myself sometimes... or going for a run.

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For more information, see Richard Saul Wurman's "Information Anxiety."