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.
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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.
Alan, Do Not unplug, I admonish you! You’ll regret it. You LOVE the Internet. It’s the greatest tool in the world. Don’t fight it!
I’m not sure why, but since I’ve moved from bookmarks to a news aggregator, I read from fewer sources scattered online. I tend to check out headlines and move on to the topics and articles that I must read either for work or a particular information obsession. I’m going to hire a team of social scientists to study my surfing and reading habits. I’m sure they’ll find something embarrassing like “She don’t need to actually read the news – she just needs to know it’s there where she can find it.”