Off topic

We’re exposed to equivalent of 174 newspapers a day

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Alan Gardner February 14, 2011 1 minute 2 comments

Fascinating story over in the Telegraph about how much information we consume and produce.

The growth in the internet, 24-hour television and mobile phones means that we now receive five times as much information every day as we did in 1986.

But that pales into insignificance compared with the growth in the amount of information we churn out through email, twitter, social networking sites and text messages.

…

Using the analogy of an 85 page newspaper, they found that in 1986 we received around 40 newspapers full of information every day but this had rocketed to 174 in 2007.

The full article has tons of interesting stats.

On a personal level, I’ve often felt overloaded with the constant stream. I’ve tried unsuccessfully at times to blackout certain days and weekends – always caving because of some legitimate need that requires I look something up. I gave up my iPhone last summer to get away from the always tethered feeling, but sadly, I traded it in for an iPad (wifi only) – which only created frustrating scenarios of not having internet access (needing map/directions) when I need it.

There’s a part of me that seriously wants to pull a Watterson and completely unplug.