JUST FROM our social media groups of classmates, neighbors, organization members, hobby mates, and relatives, we already get all sorts of information including gossip and fake news handed from group to group. The handset has become not just a tool for communications but the reservoir of information from photos to blogs. Where is all this information going? What do we do with it?
When dealing with information overload, screening becomes a matter of survival. Some focus is applied on what posts to read, books to pick up, and streaming data to pay attention to. Even with short blogs and video clips (TikTok has contributed its share in the downpour) and the hits and passes they elicit, selectivity is essential.
Maybe, we can follow the rules of small talk. After all, it is in the exchange of personal details in an informal setting where the expression “too much information” has come from. This disdain for details, especially in private matters like intimate relationships of couples splitting up, or office politics in a particular company can be liberating. TMI is code for — can you change the topic or find another seatmate?
When dealing with the data fog, screening is essential. There is an implicit plea then to provide just sufficient information to keep conversation flowing, without sacrificing interest and overwhelming the listener with unnecessary details — she was wearing a tight headband under her helmet.
The best efficiency is achieved when specific information is requested. (What’s his real name?) If one needs to confirm the gravity of someone’s illness or the present employment status of an associate, the reply is brief and to the point. (I really don’t know.) Such a straightforward search elicits specific information. This may entail googling the source and wording of a quotation, the status of an elderly celebrity, or the top hit song of a particular year.
Focusing on common interests guides small talk. Would you discuss office politics and the perfidy of associates or impossible KRA’s being foisted on you by your boss with your cousin from Sydney in a family reunion? He couldn’t care less about your career challenges, or even successes. In small talk, we need to instinctively avoid imposing on the attention span of the other party. Maybe gossip on other relatives and effective ways to avoid diabetes may be more engaging.
In social media groups, is small talk limited to common interests? Even defining what is common to the group is a challenge. Classmates go their separate ways and hold very different beliefs.
Posts wander off into international subjects in the current news, like the war on Gaza, the increased provincial enrollment of a certain nationality of students with short hair, and religious miracles and various conspiracies to suppress supernatural phenomena. If the performance of the equity market comes up, for example, it is enough for the conversation to meander into what the Fed is up to and when the reduction of interest rates is likely to happen.
The best way to handle information overload is to simply ignore what does not interest us. Just because it’s there doesn’t mean it needs to be digested or even browsed. Like packing for a vacation, needs determine the clothes and items to bring to avoid taking along too much and being weighed down by too many towels.
Still, the functional use of information only applies to surfing the computer or the smart phone. The pragmatic approach to information can be discernment, especially when it comes to fake news (he fainted twice in his office) and conspiracy theories — there are foreign gardeners even in military camps.
However, an avid reader is prepared to be surprised and delighted with areas of knowledge some may consider worthless like stoicism, behavioral economics, or landscape architecture which is supposed to be the oldest profession. We should not be deprived of the joys of understanding how the Roman Empire was ruled, the lessons from the 2008 sub-prime loan crisis, and the progress of the Ukraine invasion.
Information which serves no immediate practical use can still be put in mental storage. Data which turns knowledge into wisdom is never wasted. From some remembered lines from Robert Frost, I may in old age finally understand that… “I have promises to keep, and miles to go before we sleep.”
Tony Samson is chairman and CEO of TOUCH xda
