Since the beginning of the internet, the volume of information has been growing exponentially.
Without even realizing it, we are pumping out unbelievable amounts of data onto the web every day. By “unbelievable” here I mean around 2.5 quintillion bytes — that’s a 1 with 18 zeros after it. If you have hard time grasping how much that is, you’re far from alone.
Let’s translate this impossible-to-imagine number into something we all understand. There are so many HD movies on the web today you would need 47 million years to watch them all. There are over 1.8 billion websites out there, and on average 571 new ones are created every minute. That’s how much data we’ve generated. It’s no wonder that information overload has become an issue.
The large volume of information is not a problem per se. The real problems are the lack of information-quality control on the one hand, and our inability to control the flow of incoming information on the other. Given the situation, it is not surprising that some of us suffer from information overload and feel an urgent need for an information detox.
What Is Information Overload?
Information overload is something you’ve likely felt or dealt with at least once. It is the feeling you get when, after hours of searching the web, you…
