Too much of anything can be bad. Every one knows this but no one seems to follow it. The best example of a sensory overload is the distribution of information. Nothing beats it. There is no dearth of information and there is no end to its flow.
Look around and everything reeks of information overkill. Buy a simple chewing gum and suddenly you are a better person, information wise! Information has never had it better since the Internet came to rule our lives. People, me included, not only read newspaper(s) at home but love to devour the online edition of The New York Times. We subscribe to the newsletter of e-zines as if our lives depended on them. We believe that news alerts on the cell phone is what makes all the difference.
Why?
Information, my friend, is king, queen and just about everything in the between!
Like everything that goes up, information overload is bound to come down as well. The wheels are already moving. There is an advance on cutting down on information to make life better. Bloggers have started unblogging- completely stop blogging and also removing posts from cyberspace. Some have also started to withdraw from social networking sites and delete their online identities. This is to make life better, easier by using relevant information. See what excess can do?
But…I don’t think that the real reason to do so it that there is too much information.
I sincerely believe that most of the times information doesn’t really reach people. If there were really an upsurge the why is that in last week I came across three people who had no idea about Shah Rukh Khan’s Kolkata Knight Riders? This is after all the news channels and all the newspapers (pullouts included) went hoarse talking about SRK’s new tamasha! The weekend newspapers all featured news about St. Stephen's having trouble looking for a new Principal but some former students (who think they are kings of information superhighway) were clueless about the whole damn thing. Some time ago a friend who is in the film business was unaware that Jodhaa-Akbar, just about the biggest release of the last six months, was already playing at a cinema near her.
A friend was raving about a book that promises to change lives and it suggests avoiding information that you really don’t need. I like that notion and can live with it. I think maybe these people are already putting it to use. How the hell would SRK and his innuendos make any difference to our lives?
So now I read a book, get more information, then use the information to lose extra information while people whom I’m suggesting these tips to are doing just the same and are happily ignorant about the darn book…
Wow!
click...
0 Responses to “Overkill”
Post a Comment