Information Overload

I don't know about you, but I'm getting really overstimulated by conversation. Everything from the health care debates (is bloodbath too harsh?) to Kanye West flipping out at the VMAs is making my brain nauseous. Yes, nauseous. As in my brain is keeling over from the fact that despite all the information we come across every day, very little of it seems relevant or important. Yet it just keeps coming, whether we like it or not.

This is actually more common of a concern than you'd think. The Information Age has given the world unlimited access and scope to almost every reach of the accumulated knowledge of human history. Information that can now be accessed in a microsecond-Google search took months, even years, to access barely fifty years ago.

But if knowledge is power, and with power comes great responsibility, we are at a crossroads. At this two intersection are two looming questions: Does too much information muddle the human mind, or does it motivate us—in learning lessons from the past and being aware of the future—to better the world? And what happens when, with so much information swirling about, false or twisted information gets injected into the system?

I tend to believe, in regards to the first question, that we are on the right track. There may be people out there that consider their obsession with Bradgelina or purse chihuahuas relevant to their life's meaning, but luckily (er...hopefully) those aren't the people who run companies or countries. As for the people who will be in power someday (us), I can speak from experience and conversations we are using the boon of the Information Age to our advantage. Whether it's the LMU student who learns about unfair wage practice at the LAX Hilton, or the University of San Francisco kids who discover that human trafficking still occurs in the US—we are doing something about it. Never before has humanity's problems been so out in the open; never before have we risen marvelously to the occasion.

But, like my poor nauseous brain can attest to, the fact we have access to so much information does not mean its all true. Yet we seem to think the opposite. A perfect example is the recent financial meltdown, in which situations like subprime mortgages (Wall Street telling Main Street he can buy a million dollar home with a $15k salary) screwed everyone over—yet everyone believed it at first.

But this is human nature. We like believing things that aren't true. I argue that the game has changed, though, and for the better—because there's a fourth party involved. The three other parties—corporations and business, media, and government—used to be the only way we got our information. Now, with email, blogs, and Skype, they have competition from, egad, ordinary people.

Problem is, fat cats don't want to get skinnier. Think of how much more in-your-face the media, businesses and their advertising, and government has gotten in tandem with the Information Age. They've figured out that if they can get our attention first—and with enough punch—they still have the advantage.

Which leads us back to square one: overstimulation, my poor nauseous brainwaves—

And conversation. Processing too much information may at times bog us down and prevent us from thinking clearly (or even wanting to think at all). But the means of overstimulation is also the best defense against it. The contrast is in its content. Like the old saying, “You are what you eat”, we are what we think. Garbage in, garbage out.

Thus the case for conversation—good conversation, that is. For it is in conversation with multiple perspectives, opinions, and thoughts that, in the very clash of these ideas, a product emerges steeled and resolved in its conviction. That is why LMU students are faring so well with the Information Age; we are using conversation to integrate our information into our actions and better ourselves and the world.

And that is why I write: to further encourage this culture of conversation. Join me weekly to explore new perspectives and ideas on everything from politics to pop culture. It is my hope that the more we think, in both our minds and out loud with others, the better equipped we will be to face the promises and the perils of the Information Age.