Information Overload
In my email in-box this morning was a new Costco ad, featuring all kinds of new electronic gadgets promising to improve my life. People who know me know that I am a total gadget goddess, a junkie for all things new and different and technological. Every now and then one of these gadgets actually does simplify my life, like my Kindle, which allows me to carry around an absurd number of books; books which don’t add to the real estate crisis on my bookshelves. But mostly the gadgets fill my house with shining LED lights and wires that inexplicably tangle themselves together into an orgy of knots.
A recent Costco acquisition was a GPS unit with “lane assist.” I have traveled to LA twice in the last six months or so, and driving on the freeways without the lane assist feature is, well, an exercise in terror. When there are 8 lanes going in each direction, exits on the right and left, and the car is moving at 60 miles and hour, it is just not helpful when your GPS tells you to “take the next exit” fifty feet before the exit. So on this last trip to LA, I was prepared. And for the most part, the device delivered – Until it broke on the next to last day of the trip. Fortunately on the last trip, I had learned the way, more or less, from Long Beach to the airport. We had rented a GPS unit with the car, but it didn’t work properly and didn’t actually speak the directions, so we basically used it as a map.
I often wonder if all of these electronic gadgets, and the whole proliferation of devices designed to deliver information, actually enrich our lives or just make us less resourceful and able to think for ourselves. Advances in medical knowledge tell us that to stave off degenerative brain disease, like Alzheimer’s, we should solve puzzles and do things that make us think. Might using a map and figuring out our own routes from here to there be actually better for our brains than being fed turn by turn directions? Is using a GPS to get somewhere and then doing puzzles to work out our brains kind of like driving to a health club to exercise our bodies?
It’s just one of those things that make me say “hmmm.” Of course, I do both – I drive to the health club to swim and I use the GPS when I’m traveling or going somewhere unfamiliar. And I also walk my dogs for exercise and use maps when finding a new place. But I do wonder if all these new gadgets that deliver instant information are actually all that helpful in the grand scheme or our lives. Is being bombarded by information from dawn to dusk and afterward a good thing?
I think not. I hear a lot of people complain that when they go to bed, they can’t turn off their minds. But how could we turn off our minds when we are soaking up information every waking moment. Our brains are overloaded and spinning out of control. This is not a sign that we know how to think well. If we knew how to think, to use our brains instead of allowing our brains to use us, we would be able to turn them off and stop the endless ruminations.
There are ways to do this, but they are not easy or quick to learn. The first step is to just turn off the information flow for a time every day. Turn off the computer, put down the book or magazine, turn off the TV or radio, and shut down the gaming software. Then just notice what happens with your mind and body. Do you feel anxious? Are you immediately bored? Do you start to fidget? What do you think about – are there patterns of thought that pop up? Try to sit with any discomfort you feel and figure out what needs to be done.
I love the work of Andrea Isaacs. She works with the Enneagram and Emotional Intelligence. She has people physically act out their emotional or mental discomfort, and then has them listen to their bodies, and let their bodies tell them what to do as an antidote. I suggest trying this as a start; you may be surprised at how much your body knows. Instead of seeking yet more information to understand your discomfort, just sit with the feelings and thoughts and let your body respond.