MENTION the words “Encyclopedia Britannica” or “Encarta CD encyclopedia” to a teenager or somebody born in the early 1990s and expect to get a quizzical look.
For people in that age bracket, those terms hardly ring a bell. The things they represent are as recognizable as their great grandparents or the historical figures they were taught in the elementary grades.
Generation X members (who are now enjoying senior-citizens discounts) will remember Encyclopedia Britannica as the 15-volume or so set of books that schools used then as reference material for various subjects.
The children of the baby boomers who were born when computer technology was on the upswing will recall Encarta as the go-to compact disk for quick information for research assignments.
Not anymore. Like the floppy disks and diskettes of yore, CDs have gone out of style in favor of flash drives and other devices that can store tons of data in gadgets that can fit into small pockets.
What’s more, there’s Google, Yahoo! and other Internet-based search engines that, at the flick of a finger, can download all the information available in cyberspace on any subject under the sun.
With access to it almost unrestrained, anybody with just the right amount of computer knowledge can upload any kind of data or information in the Net for viewing.
Overload
As if these sources of information are not enough, there’s Twitter, Facebook and other social-networking sites that allow their members and occasional visitors to chat, ask questions or seek advice on any subject that may strike their fancy.
There is no dearth in the responses they will get, more so, if they post their request for information or advice to their enrolled “friends” and the latter’s respective individual links.
There seems to be hordes of people who either have a lot of time in their hands or use the Net as a crutch for their lonely social lives.
You want to know more about somebody you met recently? Type his name in a search engine or social networking site. Chances are he has been written about, mentioned in some report, or has filled up a form somewhere, or maintains a Facebook account. Voila! Your background check is done.
You want to know more about a product you want to buy, a school you want to enroll in, a place you plan to visit, or a dining place recommended by a friend?
Go through the same search procedure and satisfy your curiosity. Halfway through your reading treasure and after one hour, however, you may have to decide which information to believe and which to discard. Welcome to the world of information overload!
Decisions
A recent article in Newsweek magazine discussed how “the Twitterization of our culture has revolutionized our lives.” Using data gathered from various research studies, the author analyzed the effects of today’s abundance and availability of information on the ordinary person’s decision-making process.
The premise is undeniable—our brain can take in only so much information load. Anything in excess of that load capacity puts a strain on the brain’s ability to make well-thought-of decisions. When that happens, “the brain struggles to figure out what to keep and what to disregard. Ignoring the repetitious and the useless requires cognitive resources and vigilance, a harder task when there is so much information.”
Ideally, the availability of information allows a person to weigh the pros and cons of an intended action, analyze the short-term and long-term effects of a decision and, in a manner of speaking, learn from the mistakes of the past.
The flipside of that perceived advantage is, “every bit of information presents a choice: whether to pay attention, whether to reply, whether to factor it into an impending decision.”
Quoting a research study, the article pointed out that “when we make decisions, we compare bundles of information. So a decision is harder if the amount of information you have to juggle is greater.”
Unconscious
Weighed down by information, sometimes conflicting or confusing, the brain becomes “a victim of info-paralysis” and refuses to make a decision, or, if forced to do so, makes objectively poor choices.
To aggravate matters, after a decision has been made and the person later comes upon additional information that he should have taken into consideration, he becomes disappointed (or worse, depressed) about his action.
Thus, the author pointed out that “if we manage to make a decision despite info deluge, it often comes back to haunt us. In a world of limitless information, regret over the decisions we make becomes more common. We chafe at the fact that identifying the best feels impossible.”
So how does one avoid, if not minimize, the adverse effects of information overload on the decision-making process?
The author said that “creative decisions are more likely to bubble up from a brain that applies unconscious thoughts to a problem, rather than going at it in a full-frontal, analytical assault.”
Those unconscious thoughts are believed to arise when the brain is in a state of relative peace or not under stress, such as, while a person is in the shower or a setting different from what he’s been used to in his daily life.
In the midst of information overload, the author advises that we “need to pull back from the constant influx and take a break. That allows the brain to subconsciously integrate new information with existing knowledge and thereby make novel connections and see hidden patterns.”
The line to the spa starts at the right.
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