The Information Tsunami Is Sucking You In. And You Don’t Even Know It. (Part 1)
The Information Tsunami is for real, getting bigger, and is happening now. Not taking an action is not an option. It’s a must if we are to maintain any sanity in our lives.
Just a few decades back, there was very little that we knew of what was happening around us. We went searching for libraries to seek and understand the way the world operated around us. We consumed information when we needed it and in the manner we wanted.
We were at ease with ourselves not knowing everything. We didn’t compete with friends and colleagues as to who knew how much. We listened attentively to people who had information and knowledge to share.
All this meant that we knew less, but we knew well.
Fast forward to the present day. We know everything that is happening around us. We don’t need to walk up to any libraries anymore. Any and all information comes to us with a single swipe or a click (served Hot & Ready).
We are hogging up information even when we don’t need it. We are not comfortable even after knowing so much. We end up competing with everyone around us on the amount of information that can be consumed. We have stopped given enough attention when people share their knowledge since we believe it can easily be “googled”, so why bother listening?
In essence, we know a lot more today, but not so well.
But what caused this drastic change, that we have now become obsessed with consuming so much information?
The Village Well
A simple analogy is of a village well. Imagine, earlier there was one well with limited water, so everyone went there to draw their limited share of water every day. Almost everyone got equal quantities of water and everyone was satisfied with their little share. This is similar to the traditional printing press, where information was printed in a limited format and the newspaper was the single source (just like one well) of information. Everyone got the same information. There was no disparity.
Later the village got another well. So now there were two wells of water available for people to draw their water from. Each well had slightly different quantities of water. So some people now started getting unequal quantities of water and the competition to fight for the resource increased. This was like getting another source — a TV, that started beaming more information through news channels.
Now, everyone started getting unequal information, and the thirst for consuming more information to be on par with the other villagers also increased.
A few years later, someone invented the Internet and all hell broke loose. Everything started changing quite rapidly after that.
Then one day, a very smart villager — Mark Zuckerberg launched Facebook, and the way the world connected and consumed information went through a massive transformation. Mark soon became an inspiration for another smart villager to launch Twitter, then another one launched Snapchat, another one launched Instagram, another launched WhatsApp. Everyone wanted to launch the next big thing.
With so many disparate sources of information now available to the entire village, everyone started competing to have the latest and the best information at hand. Some people got more, some less. Gaining access to information became the topmost priority for all villagers. Everyone started focusing their entire day seeking new information. The village was now full of knowledge workers whose only motive was to get better at their work with the help of information.
Inequality crept in and everyone became guzzlers of information, no matter in whichever shape and form it was served to them. Everyone wanted to become “know-it-all”, the rat race started and media publications, news channels, social media platforms, etc started manufacturing and feeding the villagers information by the truckload. Villagers wanted more. The platforms were more than happy to oblige.
In 2013 research scientists calculated that the year 2010 and 2011 alone generated 90 percent of the data in the world.
At the beginning of 2020, the number of bytes in the digital universe was 40 times more than the number of stars in the observable universe. Just ponder on this for a moment.
Overall, the amount of data in the world was estimated to be 44 Zettabytes at the dawn of 2020. To put things into perspective, a Zettabyte is 1,000 bytes to the seventh power. In other words, one Zettabyte has 21 zeroes. This is how it looks — 44,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 (If this number makes you dizzy, just imagine 44 Billion of 1TB Hard Disks to store this information)
So, allow me to repeat the title once again so that it sinks in good and proper — The Information Tsunami is Sucking You In. And You Don’t Even Know It.
There are three ways to explain the Information Tsunami. A Wikipedia version, An Anonymous version, and a New Age version which better mirrors the present state. Use the one whichever rolls off your tongue smoothly.
The 3 Versions Of An Information Tsunami
Wikipedia version — Information overload is the difficulty in understanding an issue and effectively making decisions when one has too much information about that issue. Generally, the term is associated with the excessive quantity of daily information.
Anonymous version — Information Tsunami is when your brain exceeds its processing capacity and leaves you feeling tired and numb. Imagine, when your computer runs out of RAM and the words that you are typing in the word document don’t reflect as fast as your typing speed.
The thing that is most amazing is when something like this happens, most people actually start typing faster thinking that by increasing their typing speed (it’s a great skill), they will overcome the sluggishness of their computer. Wish it was that simple — you overriding the processing power of RAM with your typing skills. Good luck with that.!
And when the dreaded message finally pops up saying “Word Document Not Responding”, there is no point in trying to press any other keys, it’s only going to get worse. Either you have to allow the processes to run through the tasks in which they are stuck, or you have to simply restart.
Any other tinkering with the keyboard does not help. Will not help. You will only be served with the inevitable Blue screen (system crash).
New Age version — Now the new age version is the one in which I break it down on how the Information Tsunami approaches each one of us in different ways on a typical day -
- You have been constantly reading news articles on your phone or computer to keep yourself updated with the so-called “current affairs”. News Apps on smartphones are notorious for bombarding you with notifications labeling every news item as “Breaking News” to grab your attention all day long.
- You have been scrolling through your Facebook wall to be served with pictures of that sizzling steak that your friends in New York devoured last night for dinner. You start feeling hungry, so instead of actually going to eat something, you start commenting about how lovely the steak looks. Now you are really drooling, so you go looking for more food pictures.
- You have watched too many YouTube videos or Googled too much information for the day that you already feel like the Renaissance man (or woman). I better not offend the feminists. I was not even sure whether there is anything such as a Renaissance woman, so I looked it up. You would be surprised, as I was. There IS something called as a Renaissance woman. Clap Clap. (I should score some browny points here with feminists with my research).
- You have been excitedly switching between Snapchat & Instagram feeds to see who else has been clowning around the world with their tongues out for that “1 in a Million” shot. And this then acts as an inspiration for some people to take a similar shot by painstakingly aligning their tongue at the same angle to create another — 1 in a Million shot. You see the show must go on..!
- You have been checking your Twitter feed to see how the experts (everyone person is a subject expert on Twitter) have been ranting away on various global issues, and then you retweeting just because you don’t/can’t put down your own original thoughts or you are short on time, so just retweet. You keeping scrolling further down, you come across an interesting quote or a picture and you get the urge to copy-paste the tweet to share it with your friends and groups on WhatsApp. (I have done this in the past, and I feel lame about it now)
- You have been trying to make sense of gazillions of memes that float around on various social media platforms. I for one don’t really get these memes, they are just beyond me. My nephew keeps sending me memes on Formula 1 ( my favorite sport); it takes me a while to figure it out. More often than not I don’t get it, so I message back to him to explain to me the meme. (Now, that’s really weird. Pls don’t try that with your friends otherwise they will outcast you). He responds with an emoji of anguish. I give up. He doesn’t.
- You have been picking up your phone every few minutes to check WhatsApp messages for images and videos (which have got nothing to do with you) that your “well-wishers” have forwarded to you. After pondering over the image (maybe it brought a smile to your face), you now start thinking how to respond to the sender, and whether you should delete it after that, or save it for later use, or forward it to you friends. Finally, you arrive at a decision — you want to share it with your friends and a couple of WhatsApp groups. Within a few minutes, you start getting pings from the universe. And the cycle continues endlessly until a new video or an image comes along. Rinse & Repeat.
- You have been keeping 8–10 tabs open on your browser at any given point in time hoping to read through all the articles (I have 6 open right now at the time of writing this article in one browser and 3 open in another browser). You will still have those tabs open on your browser for a week, even after you have read them, in the hope that you will go back to it once more to understand the topic better.
- You coming back home and switching ON your TV to watch more news that you missed during the day as if the News Apps on your phone didn’t serve you enough junk. However, some professions do require people to keep themselves abreast of the financial markets before they open the next morning. Works for them. Does not work for the regular folks.
- You scrolling and switching through Netflix or Amazon Prime to watch a movie, spending 15 minutes trying to pick a movie, only to switch it off and get back to your phone, since you could not decide which one was best suited for your mood and your room lighting, or even the food that you have just ordered in. (Maybe an action movie if you have ordered Pizza, or a romantic movie if you have ordered Dessert)
- You have been scrolling through all the certificates that your friends and colleagues have accumulated and posted on LinkedIn. You read through those certificates, you look up the person’s profile, and maybe type in a Congratulatory message if you are in the mood. Initial admiration quickly turns into a minor panic attack as you now start wondering whether you are any worth in your current job. So, you then start searching for online courses for yourself, in the hope that you in turn also get to post one of those much sought-after certificates. (I truly wonder what pleasure does one get by posting through this endless self-propagandish (is that a word?) learning certificates. Sure you learned something new and have gained new knowledge. Great job. Now go use it at your workplace where it matters the most and improve your performance, rather than flaunting it to the rest of the world. We have enough narcissists to deal with on any given day at Instagram and TikTok).
- You have been entertaining yourself on TikTok videos, checking out all the dance moves and weird things that people are doing all over the world. What I fail to understand is, what is weirder? People doing weird things or people watching other people do weird things or people who do weird things watching other people do weird things? Did I lose you? Help me to decode this..! (Again less said about this platform the better). I bet it has its own unique place on Earth and some people do make a living out of it. My personal request to Elon Musk whenever he colonizes Mars, which I hope he does sooner, is to ban TikTok on Mars. (some countries have already banned it or on the verge of banning). I’d rather deal with Aliens than TikTok users.
- Then there are some things are beyond your control, such as — the TVs above the restaurant tables, the treadmill, on the bus, on your commute train, while waiting at the airport, radio in your friend’s car providing the latest update on celebrity pets, the city traffic, and the weather report, or any of life’s endless distractions.
Information Tsunami Approaching You at Glacial Speeds
While living in the ‘Information Age’ has changed the world in many positive ways in terms of Commerce, Entertainment, Work, Communication, and Education, it has also caused serious negative side effects that have been creeping under us at glacial speeds.
The reason am saying glacial speed is because the effects are so slow that you don’t realize it happening. We are tuned to realizing and understanding the impacts of what happens to us when things happen fast. For eg when you fall, you realize you are hurt. Or when you bump your head into something, you receive instant feedback from your system that something is wrong and you take corrective correction.
But something which is slowly creeping in, like cancer, we don’t feel anything until it is too late. Or a tumor, it keeps growing steadily until one day it becomes irreversible and fatal. The same thing goes for climate change as well. The reason why we don’t feel the impact, and hence less motivation to do anything about it, is that it is very slow and gradual.
Climate Activists who want people to take action to fight against climate change have to change their communication and messaging, as Simon Sinek says, from “Global Warming” to “Climate Cancer”. Am digressing a little bit here, but hope you get the point.
Information Tsunami is exactly like that. It impacts us slowly and gradually and by the time you realize it has taken deep root in your system and on the verge of invoking the inevitable Blue screen.
Zombie Land
There was a time (not many years back) when all this was being labeled as the “Internet Addiction”. Nobody wanted to acknowledge or hear that word. Why? Because it was the sugar candy for your daily dose of Dopamine hit (more about it later). We couldn’t have enough of it. It was all new and exciting (it still is), so why wouldn't we want more of it?
Over the years, Internet Addiction has now metamorphosized into “Information Addiction”. We just want to keep consuming it, because this particular candy is laced with more sugar to make you a walking-talking zombie tearing through the city streets and shouting at the top of his/her lungs for anyone caring to listen.
But guess what, everyone is busy consuming just like you are. So who exactly is listening?
In present times, not only are we being constantly bombarded with information from all possible directions (add Alexa & Siri to this), but it is also hurtling down at us — yes you said it right — just like a Tsunami. And the curious creatures we are (possibly more than the apes), we either start walking towards the approaching Tsunami to get a closer look (1. because we never have seen one before. 2. We really don’t think we can get hit by a Tsunami, I mean what are the odds really?) or we stay our ground in the confidence that we are a good swimmer and can easily tackle the big wave. But we never take a higher ground or prepare ourselves to avoid the onslaught until it is too late.
We want to absorb everything and anything that is thrown at us as if by not absorbing we will seem less intelligent amongst our friends and colleagues. Add to that, our desire to always be topping the “Current Affairs” charts forces us to keep consuming information all day long.
God forbid, you end up at a dinner table with few people, and you don’t know what the hell they are talking about (some people talk about TikTok videos and learning certificates posted on LinkedIn. If you are one of those, surely you should keep yourself updated with “current affairs”).
My Favourite — The Dopamine Hit
Dopamine is a neurotransmitter in the brain that affects your productivity, motivation, and focus — some even call it the “Motivation Molecule” because it boosts your drive and concentration while helping you to resist negative impulses.
One of those impulses is the need to feed and am talking not only about your dietary intake; your body also craves information. Dopamine induces feelings of euphoria when you exercise, eat, drink, have sex, engage with your hobbies, and so on.
Basically, anything you do that makes you happy; makes you happy because it releases dopamine into your brain. Most of these things are bad for you (like unhealthy food or sugary drinks) if your intake is not moderated. One of the hardest to moderate is your information intake because it affects your mental well-being, leaving you feeling lethargic, unfocused, and sometimes even depressed if you overload yourself with it.
We live in a world where the Internet makes information so easily accessible to us that we can even become desensitized to dopamine over time, making it much harder for us to concentrate on the task on hand. It weakens your concentration, leaving you more susceptible to making bad decisions, and as a result, more likely to overload yourself. It becomes a mechanism to procrastinate on important tasks.
The interesting thing is when all this is happening — you don’t realize it. Just like when you consume loads of sugary drinks, you don’t realize that you are setting yourself up for life-long diabetes or obesity until it is too late.
You enjoy the drink because you get a Dopamine hit. You enjoy the Information because you get a Dopamine hit, and then you crave for more of it.
This article has been broken down into two parts. What started as a small piece to capture some personal thoughts and insights, led me to dive deeper into the subject to truly understand the real impact of the Information Tsunami and share some personal experiences of managing this onslaught.
And in order to bring it all together, the original article became too long and had to be broken down into two parts.
Part 2 — contains the “Consequences Of Being Caught In An Information Tsunami”, “Antidotes To The Information Tsunami” and “My Final Thoughts”.
In my publication Any Given Sunday, I mostly write stories about parenting, being a dad, motivation, fitness, and some off-beat controversial topics.
I am also very passionate about F1, and run a publication — Formula One Forever where writers from across the globe contribute to this publication
Some more thought-provoking stories from Any Given Sunday —
Dad Stories
⭐ Say Hello! To The 4 Year Old Forrest Gump
⭐ If You Don’t Pick Up Your Kids Now, You’ll Surely Regret Later
⭐ How to Extract A Commitment From Your Teenager?
⭐ That Day When Dads Took Charge Of Their Kids For 1 Day
⭐ Your Kids Need To Sleep For Atleast 8 Hours. Otherwise, The Consequences Are Quite Severe
⭐ Teachers, Stop Asking Children To Click Pictures. Instead, Do This One Thing
⭐ If a 9 Year & 4 Year Old Can Climb 69 Floors, What’s Really Stopping You?
⭐ The Real Truth About The Discovery Of The Indus Valley Civilization
Motivational Stories
⭐ If I Miss A Rep, I Punish Myself. And The Results Are Amazing.
⭐ Top 15 Quotes from The Navy Seals That Will Motivate The Hell Out Of You Everyday.
⭐ 5 Simple Reasons You Are Not Motivated, And What You Need To Do About It.
⭐ To Merely Want to Do Something Is Not Enough. You Need To Take Action.
⭐ To Earn Respect, You Have To Look Sharp
⭐ How To Manage Negative Talk From Negative People?
⭐ Making Promises To Yourself Don’t Work. Never Will.
⭐ When Disaster Strikes, Just Say The Four Letter Word.
⭐ Fail You Must. History Is Full Of People Who Failed & Bounced Back
⭐ Achieve Personal Glory By Embracing Your Challenges With Open Arms.
⭐ Why You Should Apply For A Job That Says, “Men Wanted For Hazardous Journey”
⭐ Be Different. Become Different
Off-Beat Stories
⭐ The Information Tsunami Is Sucking You In. And You Don’t Even Know It. (Part 1)
⭐ The Information Tsunami Is Sucking You In. And You Don’t Even Know It. (Part 2)
⭐ Women Should Stop Trying To Walk Shoulder To Shoulder With Men (Part 1)
⭐ Women Should Stop Trying To Walk Shoulder To Shoulder With Men (Part 2)
⭐ Women Should Stop Trying To Walk Shoulder To Shoulder With Men (Part 3)
⭐ 26 Amazing (Or Not) Things That We All Can Do During Humanity’s Downtime
⭐ Trust Your Common Sense To Beat The CoronaVirus
⭐ Why 2500 deaths/day is Creating a Bigger Panic and Emergency than 17,000 Children deaths/day?
