With Everest-like trepidation I approach them: the newspaper pile (I subscribe to 6), the e-mail pile, the magazine pile (8 annual subscriptions), the fax pile, the phone message pile, and on and on and on. (I will omit for the time being the “interesting article” pile, the “attend to it later” pile, and the “gotta do this today” pile for the sake of this piece).
With this vision of disorganization before me it is no wonder I am depressed long before I situate myself in the chair. There is that sinking feeling that no matter how much time I reserve for the undertaking, there is no way I can reach the bottom of any individual pile. Were I to set aside a day solely devoted to pile dredging—before I got half way through the mess, a new shipment of stuff would land on top, putting me right back where I was last Monday. Thus my desk looks like something out of Dr. Seuss. No kidding. The piles actually wind upward in a serpentine fashion, growing thinner at one point, and then getting obnoxiously wide at the next. Teetering perilously on a free gift that came with last February’s renewal of Newsweek, the top part of the magazine pile tends to list left or right depending on how quickly I enter the room.
Restore Some Sense of Balance, Man!
I know what you’re thinking: “pull the gift box out and restore some order to the pinnacle — restore some sense of balance, man!” I'll have you know the day I pull that water proof, digital, Chinese-made watch (which probably has ceased to operate) from the pile I will be killed from the deluge of paper from on high. They won’t find me 'til Easter.
All these years I thought I was alone. I thought I was the only person living in this Info-Purgatory: a netherworld where the information helps nor hurts—it just regenerates and causes suffering. But now I realize I am not alone. There are millions of us who simply have amassed too much data.
There is plenty out there. Some reports claim that more information has been produced in the last 30 years than in the previous 5,000.
A report in a health journal by Marsha White and Steve Dorman claims that:
“The average office (worker) spends approximately 60% of their time processing documents. A typical manager reads 1 million words every week, equal to one and one-half full-length novels every day. Paper consumption per capita in the United States tripled from 200 to 600 pounds in the 40 years from 1940 to 1980. During the decade 1980 to 1990, paper consumption tripled again.”
E-mail has only compounded the problem. Whether you want it or not, there are hundreds of messages instantly thrust upon us, the length of which can be several pages. You have no choice but to read the things. This can take hours, especially if you are bombarded by “intruder mail”. This occurs when some idiot decides to attach your address to a “Joke of the Day” e-mail, or some other piece of inconsequential garbage that arrives like the postal service: rain or shine, every day. To get “unsubscribed” from this drek usually takes several hours. If that doesn’t work, you can always change your e-mail address!
Could be Dangerous to Your Health
White and Dorman’s research indicates that this Information Overload and the subsequent nightmare it creates can destroy your health. “Physical symptoms include increases in blood pressure, cardiovascular stress, and digestive disorders. Memory difficulties, lack of concentration, headaches, stomach and muscle pain,” and a diminished attention span.
Sound familiar? What about these: “Irritability and anger, lethargy, listlessness, ennui, sleeplessness, stress, panic, and tension.”
With so much information out there one would think we would be satiated. But the research suggests it has just the opposite effect. The more information we get, the more we feel we are missing, forcing us into a paralysis of sorts, where decision making becomes impossible.
David Shenk, author of Data Smog, suggests that this never-ending quest and acquisition of new information can also degrade our spiritual lives. This makes perfect sense: if you spend all your free time surfing the net and thumbing through back issues of Life chances are quiet time, more specifically prayer time, is likely to suffer.
So what’s the solution? Is there a way out of this Info-Purgatory? Call me Dante. Here are some tips:
Seven Key Suggestions
• Kill Your Television. The average American household leaves the tube on for 8-10 hours a day! Talk about unnecessary information. Plan your family and individual viewing, and ladies, take custody of the clicker. If there is nothing worth watching on don’t let the man in your life graze. Turn the sucker off.
• Schedule information review. Each day set aside a small amount of time to scan your messages, e-mail, mags, and papers. What you don’t need, toss. What you do need file. If you can’t decide, deposit it in file 13.
• Limit time in cyber space. Don’t go running after every link on the net. Who do you think you are, de Soto? You wouldn’t go running up dark alleys in an unfamiliar city to see what was in there—so don’t go running down dark cyber alleys.
• Establish a “think week”. According to a recent report even Microsoft chairman Bill Gates fasts from data for a full week from time to time. Not a bad idea.
• Don’t add to the overload problem. Never e-mail everyone in your address book. You don’t phone people this way—so don’t e-mail them this way either. Target the information to only the relevant parties.
• Cut out what you don’t need. David Shenk suggests that you periodically (once every 6 months) review the publications you are receiving and honestly question their necessity. If you can do without them, cancel them.
• Live a real life. Cyber space is not real life. Get out of it often. Walk, interact with friends, collect information by personal observation, and pray.
As for me, I am praying that info-salvation will be mine any day now. I have vowed to reform my ways. But to start again I need to clear the slate. Even as I write I am strategically placing tiny explosives throughout the various “Towers.” Detonation will begin … first thing tomorrow morning. Then again, maybe I need to do a little more research before I do anything rash.
