What is information overload?

 Today you might start out by checking an email. The first email is high priority and requires immediate attention. Before finishing this task you are personally informed by your boss that he requires your immediate assistance downstairs. Your spouse then sends you several text messages concerning additional errands he or she needs to be done before arriving home. Then, as if you did not already have enough on your plate, your best friend tweets you about his or her feelings being hurt by how you acted to them the day before. Now you are on your way downstairs with your boss to handle a non programmed decision (Untrained or unique). This same scenario happens daily to the average American citizen. Maybe not as complicated as this scenario but none-the-less it is called Information Overload or Brain Overload and it happens because we are handling more than the human brain is capable.

       Information Overload is called a number of different things. The most technical of these terms isAttention Deficit Trait. This is a lot like Attention Deficit Disorder, only it is caused strictly by handling too many stressful situations at one time. When you become overloaded with information and obligations you start becoming more distracted, impulsive, impatient and irritable. As you continue to work and focus even more intently to accomplish all of your various tasks, you still find yourself drowned with information. It is even possible to lose a connection with true reality.  Our own brains are not too much different than a computer system.  Information Overload might be easier to understand if we think of it in terms of a computer systems memory. Whenever a computer uses up its entire RAM by running other programs, the entire system becomes overwhelmingly buggy and slow. This is the same for humans whenever we reach our own information threshold.

        Over time humans have become better about storing information. Whether it was writing important information in books or leaving the dissemination of information to religious groups that pass on important lessons thru values.  It is well known that now we need to be teaching student’s ways to utilize the information available, instead of trying to get them to stop.  The quantity of information will increase over time and if we do not learn how to find the best results at our current state, it will become increasingly difficult in the future. Time has shown that humans have become increasingly better at ignoring, filtering and specifically selecting information.

I have been doing detailed research on the affects of Info Overload and will be posting a series of blog posts thoroughly discussing how it can affect you in most environments :-D.

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