I came across an interesting panel discussion on CBC Radio about information overload and not only its effect on work productivity, but also how it can be managed effectively.
Companies like Google, Microsoft and IBM have formed the Information Overload Research Group with the goal of helping people manage the amount of information they have to deal with in a day.
According to Jonathan Spira, one of the group’s founding members, wikis, blogs and RSS have made the deluge of information worse, rather than better.
Maggie Jackson (author of Distracted: The Erosion of Attention and the Coming Dark Age) also joins the conversation to talk about how all this information is eroding our attention spans. It’s very interesting and well worth a listen.
You can listen to the entire discussion at the link I’ve provided (and cheers to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation for putting their content online).
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July 13th, 2008 at 7:34 pm
So true. I often wonder if I’d be better off unsubscribing from all my RSS feeds, getting off all email newsletters, and running for the wilderness.
July 14th, 2008 at 2:30 pm
And that’s why I’m hoping to do some camping this summer — no RSS, no email and definitely no phone.
July 16th, 2008 at 2:00 am
All our work and often social life and entertainment are driven by streams of information…we can try managing the dosage, but can we really disengage? Can you imagine your days without access to the Internet of course except vacations in the wilderness?
July 19th, 2008 at 10:50 am
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July 21st, 2008 at 4:05 pm
Good point Henry. To a certain extent, we’ve become addicted to information — and while information can be a good thing, we can also become paralyzed by having too much information. For most people, disengaging completely is not an option.
I, for one, spend a great deal of time online — and whether I like it or not, much of my work, social life and free time are spent online. It’s interesting how when I do disengage though, I find the quality of my day generally goes up.
August 4th, 2008 at 5:00 pm
Your post raises a deep question: what is the best way to manage incoming knowledge? Television, email, blogs, telephones, newspapers, etc. all offer sources of information/knowledge, with different priorities. How do we manage within the sources, rather than shutting off certain sources entirely? I imagine that this question is one that must be answered as we evolve in this information age.