Information Overload

Have we as a nation reached information overload? Social scientists have been warning about the possibility for years. It does seem as if it has arrived.

The Information Worker Productivity Institute estimates that the average worker spends more than 90 minutes a day dealing with e-mail. One source says that the typical office worker in the U.S. sends and receives as many as 200 e-mail messages a day. Frankly, I think that number is low and might not take into account the messages sent on a Blackberry or iPhone.

One research group found that the volume of business e-mails annually worldview exceeded one exabyte by the year 2003. To put this in perspective one exabyte is equal to one billion gigabytes.

As the information is increasing, its length is decreasing. For example, from 1968 to 1988, candidate “sound bites” on television decreased from an average of 45 seconds to 9 seconds. Subsequent studies saw the sound bite shrink to 7 seconds.

Of course candidates know that and don’t even try to explain complex policies. They merely deliver short, punchy slogans that don’t explain but merely try to create an impression or an emotional response.

It is clear that as a nation we are processing more and more information in less and less time. And we seem to be doing it while preoccupied with electronic devices that demand out attention. Scientists call this “continuous partial attention.” Essentially, we have become a nation with ADD.

So what is the solution? Even secular social scientists are saying that we need some “quiet time.” Now there’s a novel concept? Isn’t that in the Bible? Of course it is. In a world of information overload, we need to schedule time to think and process it all. I’m Kerby Anderson, and that’s my point of view.