The relentless influx of information highlights the futility of hoarding content and the ill effect it has on our intellect and well-being
In my weekly routine of phone and computer upkeep, there is a ritual that I detest – clearing my inbox. My mailbox is inundated with dozens of notifications and newsletters from sites that I have subscribed to. I don’t understand the logic of getting so many letters delivered to me when I don’t find time to open more than half of them.
Yet I desist from unsubscribing to them because all the emails carry loads of matter and meaning, gallons of insight and information, and heaps of dispensable literature. In my over-enthusiasm to stay up to speed with the times, I invite an excess of knowledge which eventually gets junked because my mind and memory are not commensurate with the incoming barrage.
With barrels of scattered information already laid to waste in the brain and fresh bulks languishing in the inbox, I have begun to see the futility of hoarding them. The writer and columnist in me is forever greedy to add fresh knowledge in the hope of widening my horizons, but I am now beginning to burst at the seams with an overload. There is a lot out there to absorb into the intellect, and the attic is smarting, unable to withstand the pressure. All that finds a parking space on the internet is meant to grab attention and impact the reader, and how easily we have fallen prey to the enticements of the information age! We are now in an endless cycle of grazing and chewing anything that we see on our screens.
Our decision-making is based on external influences rather than on our convictions. Midway through research, we deviate and branch out to something unrelated, and then we are all over the place, ferreting about, lost and unsure of what we had wanted in the first place. And oh, how does one deal with the digital amnesia that follows all the binge-reading of fluffy, oversimplified material created with the only intention of grabbing eyeballs and garnering views?
We don’t read anymore; we skim through shorts. American journalist and writer Nicholas Carr, in his best-seller, The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains highlights how the internet is changing us superficially.
He writes that browsing through huge quantities of information often results in shallow processing, preventing us from deeply understanding the subject.It’s time to know what I need and what I don’t as a professional writer, compassionate human and rational thinker.
I need to bring focus and mindfulness into my reading and information-gathering exercises so that I don’t bombard my senses with junk.
Why do I need all the facts, figures and findings that exist on the information highway? I must learn to curate and consume stories that strictly contribute to my growth. Trying to catch up with every incident, comment and development around the world in the fear and guilt of missing out is overkill.
Not all that I find there is nourishment to my mind and soul; neither will they enhance my life experience on the whole. If only I can be discreet and prudent enough henceforth, I will perhaps be saved before I become a rubbish dump of useless narratives.
(The author is a columnist and author based in Dubai; views are personal)
