Much is made of the information overload of the modern era.
With the 24/7 news cycle, multiple feeds, and social media, we have a proliferation of information. This has been an exaggerated feature of the pandemic: endless Covid ‘live feeds’, whether it is ‘second wave updates LIVE’ or ‘vaccine roll-out LIVE’. Commentators then perpetuate this with near-instant reflections on these live updates.
If information was water, then this is the equivalent of a perpetual monsoon. As we feel overwhelmed, many focus on how to stop the rain falling so quickly. I think this is tackling the problem in the wrong way. The real issue is that the monsoon has exposed cracks in our roofs. And while a mere drizzle allows the cracks to pass unnoticed, in a monsoon the water starts pouring in and we feel overwhelmed. In the metaphor the cracks are deficiencies in the ways that we process information. We need wisdom.
