I must confess I am a victim of this too. The amount of time I have spent on the net or watching TV on the latest events in the world which is going crazy around us- is frankly unprecedented. Lifehacker has a post by Gina Trapani, its Lead Editor which speaks of the massive overfeeding of news following the financial crisis, the US Presidential elections and so on. With thousands of news articles, and TV spots, not to mention blog posts speaking of the same things – are we groaning under an information overload?
The post quotes an article in the New York Times called ” Overfeeding on Information” – this says that we are almost surfeit with the latest news but find comfort in thinking that we are better off by being better informed. We also take hope in that there are many others out there who are affected-like us.
I liked the opinion of Eric Klinenber, professor of sociology at New York University. He said people are unusually transfixed by news of the day because the economic crisis in particular seems to reach into every corner of their lives. Usually, he added, people can compartmentalize their lives into different spheres of activity, such as work, family and leisure. But now, “those spheres are collapsing into each other.”
Work is being severely affected through loss of jobs, uncertainty about the near future and a lack of direction for business in general. People need family to rally around in times of crisis. They can be great sources of strength in moments of crisis. At this juncture, I suspect that very few-even amongst the rich- have time or interest, I am afraid, for leisure.
How have you reacted to the recent deluge of information? Have you been able to digest the overfeeding?
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This is Post No: 316 of the “A Step A Day” series : To provide perspective and provoke thought to facilitate self-development across a wide spectrum of issues- big and small- crucial for executive success.
People at Work & Play 
It’s funny (or maybe it’s sad) but I’ve been reading and listening to less news since the crisis began. I keep up with what is going on with the world, but the details of the economic crisis are too much for me to take on right now.
Add the US presidential election to the pot and we are swarming in information overload. The difficult part is to determine who is telling the truth and how are words being slanted to gain votes.
Now I’m off to watch the debate!
I just watched the debate too. The whole world will watch the events of the next few weeks with great interest.