It is a common complaint these days that we are all drowing in information and that it is exhausting trying to keep up with everything. For me the problem is not in the information, but in the trying to keep up with everything.
In most areas our brains are well used to dealing with information overload, with our eyes and ears we naturally filter out most of what we see and hear without even thinking about it. Also, most of the time we don’t worry about whether we have ‘missed’ anything. Why? Because we know that if there was something important we will find out sooner or later anyway.
Something similar also happens with printed newspapers where we browse and flick through at pace very happily.
However, with digitally delivered news and information we are not so good at this process of browse and filter – largely because information overload in this area is a new problem. The chart below, which I first saw on Raphael Labbe’s blog a couple of years ago explains this nicely.
The notion of little bits of information nibbling away at our consciousness all the time and causing problems is developing into a bit of a meme right now. Yesterday I read a piece in the Telegraph which cited ‘research’ showing that it might harm moral values as people don’t dwell long enough on any one piece of news to feel compassion or admiration, and then this morning I read Alan Patrick’s return from holiday post which said:
I’ve come to the conclusion that the “always on” culture fills ones head with a clutter of fairly unimportant things – driving a “continuous partial attention” mode that can potentially block the ability to see the bigger picture, or the main strands of any issue.
For me the answer to the problem is simply to not pay attention all the time. This doesn’t make me a great Twitter user (I’m often slow to reply, and indeed before the arrival of Tweetdeck I often used to miss @brisbourne messages altogether) but it does allow me the perspective that Alan describes.
I first wrestled with this problem a couple of years ago when I was trying to keep up with too many blogs. Netvibes helped me for a bit, but ultimately only staved off the inevitable, which was to stop trying to keep up with so many. Now I barely use an RSS reader at all.
The penny dropped for me almost exactly a year ago when I wrote:
To borrow a concept from Stowe Boyd the best way to think about all the feeds and news and status updates is as a river of news. You look at it when you can and sample what is going past at that moment. You don’t worry about missing stuff – if it is important people will write about it again and you will pick up on it the second, third or fourth time round.
For a very small number of us being right on top of the breaking news every second is critical to being effective in life or work, but for most of us that isn’t the case. As Alan says, he was away for a week and the big picture didn’t really change. For all of us there is probably a small percentage of sources we do absolutely have to stay on top of, but for the rest of them taking time out is a very good thing.
The conclusion to Alan’s post is that we need better filters. In the past I have shared that thought, and I still think they would help, but what I think we need is to drop the idea that if we don’t read all our feeds and Techmeme twice a day something will go wrong. That way we free up the time to reflect, mentally relax and (last but not least) get on with the rest of our jobs.
If you take this perspective Twitter et al are valuable easy to use sources of entertainment and information not threats to our clarity of thought and mental health. Returning to the analogy with sight – if we are on a country walk sometimes we ignore everything around us, maybe to talk with a companion, and other times we take pleasure from admiring the view and occasionaly stopping to look at a tree/flower/animal/building in detail. This is like dipping in and out of the Twitter stream and occasionally clicking through to an article somebody has linked to.
RT @brisbourne: New blog entry: Musings on RSS, Twitter and information overload http://tinyurl.com/cf3lmc
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Hi, Nic.
I think the original graph was done by Kathy Sierra on her blog here:
http://headrush.typepad.com/creating_passionate...
Jed
Hi Alan – filters help, but the key point here is dipping in with just a vague idea of what you are looking for and not worrying about what you miss – a bit like going to the Tuttle Clun one week but not the next.
thoughtful post for a friday – RT@brisbourne Musings on RSS, Twitter and information overload http://tinyurl.com/cf3lmc
RT@brisbourne @bencolclough thoughtful post for a friday – Musings on RSS, Twitter and information overload http://tinyurl.com/cf3lmc
Liking yesterday’s @brisbourne blog post re staving off info overload. Top survival tips for the 21st century. http://tinyurl.com/cf3lmc
If the river is too fast, more narrowly define your keywords and break up the workload (responsible for particular keyword combos) among several colleagues.
Don't follow anyone who posts more than 100x per day, isn't posting about matters related to your work (exception to those who say several profound things once per day) or is clearly the type who follows, unfollows, follows by machine.
Finally, use SenderOK to make sure Twitter notifications and other Bacn goes to a Routine folder you should only check twice per day at most.
http://www.twitter.com/allenonblacksea
RT @tobykesterton: RT@brisbourne @bencolclough – Musings on RSS, Twitter and information overload http://tinyurl.com/cf3lmc
Allen – this works well if you know what you are looking for/want to see. If you don't (or can't define the searches) or seek serendipitous results then letting the river run fast and dipping your toe in occasionally is better (which is what I do).
We are still at the beginning of the struggle against the overwhelming amount of data. And twitter is just another layer. Last year i have killed all my facebook friend to clean up my facebook dorm.
This year i am starting to kill people i follow each time i go on twitter.
That's not the perfect filter i would wish for but … it's working.
Thanks for the post and the quote ;-D
If the river is too fast, more narrowly define your keywords and break up the workload (responsible for particular keyword combos) among several colleagues.
Don't follow anyone who posts more than 100x per day, isn't posting about matters related to your work (exception to those who say several profound things once per day) or is clearly the type who follows, unfollows, follows by machine.
Finally, use SenderOK to make sure Twitter notifications and other Bacn goes to a Routine folder you should only check twice per day at most.
http://www.twitter.com/allenonblacksea
Allen – this works well if you know what you are looking for/want to see. If you don't (or can't define the searches) or seek serendipitous results then letting the river run fast and dipping your toe in occasionally is better (which is what I do).
We are still at the beginning of the struggle against the overwhelming amount of data. And twitter is just another layer. Last year i have killed all my facebook friend to clean up my facebook dorm.
This year i am starting to kill people i follow each time i go on twitter.
That's not the perfect filter i would wish for but … it's working.
Thanks for the post and the quote ;-D
@adipoaca&alekutza: look what you’re getting yourselves into:http://bit.ly/24IBP
Take a look at the graph
@adipoaca&@alekutza: look what you’re getting yourselves into:http://bit.ly/24IBP
Take a look at the graph
@adipoaca&@alekutza: look what you’re getting yourselves into: http://bit.ly/24IBP Take a look at the graph
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Musings on RSS, Twitter and information overload http://is.gd/sJsU #postrank #entrepreneur
RT @tweetmeme Musings on RSS, Twitter and information overload | The Equity Kicker http://tinyurl.com/cf3lmc || twitter: 连续性信骚扰
[...] am I coping with all the activity? I’m not. I am beyond email bankruptcy, Twitter overload, and ready to abandon my feed [...]
[...] an interesting graphic I found on a site musing about this sort of thing. The Twitter [...]