Good post by Dan Edelen at Cerulean Sanctum about the increasing difficulty of coping with information overload. Too much data—even edifying data, like a good sermon or an insightful blog post—can be a bad thing, Dan suggests: “Listening to too many voices, even when those voices are good, is still the sign of a schizophrenic life.”
I certainly won’t argue with him. I fight a continual battle to keep my blog reading down to manageable level; I hate removing good blogs from my list of daily reads, but if I don’t regularly trim the list, I would just sit and do nothing but read blogs all day. And blogs are just one facet of the information overload we all face each day. I unfortunately don’t see any great solutions to the problem of info overload—I can’t imagine that the number of voices out there will decrease anytime soon, so the burden’s on us to manage our info intake wisely.
What do you do to keep your blog reading (or TV watching, or newspaper reading, or whatever) to a reasonable level? Any practical tips to help those who are feeling paralyzed by the sheer amount of data out there that demands our constant attention?
Loading ...
July 17, 2007 at 12:41
I met with a group of guys to discuss how we can inspire people to spend more time reaching out to the lost people around us. A man who sat across from me is a school teacher. He tells his students to go home, tell their parents to sell the TV to their worst enemies, and then those enemies will become really stupid and we can take over the world.
Funny way of putting it, but I think American homes who want to become godly homes need to ditch the TV and Internet and video games and trade them in for nightly fellowship with other believing families and time spent in prayer and sharing Scripture.
Then we have one Source of info, shared among many like-minded brothers and sisters. We can use that time to encourage, correct, train in righteousness, seek answers from God… everything the Church ought to be doing.
July 17, 2007 at 13:37
Wow. This hit home for me (and obviously alot of folks over at Cerulean Sanctum). We have so much data in books, magazines, blogs, iPods, etc… that we kind of get sidetracked and focus on one thing and one thing alone—Jesus. Even with the desire to know him better, we may be listening to so many perspectives that we lose focus. I, for example, have a habit of doing the following:
– Read the Bible (this is good) – Read a few articles in a Christian leadership magazine – Read a book on different subjects (prayer, relationships, leadership, etc.) – Listen to some sermons on tv, online, mp3 – Listen to podcasts on my iPod (2 of them per day) – Sunday School study (this is also good)
Though feeding yourself with knowledge is a good thing, the overload can bring conflicting voices to one’s mind.
What to do? Lower your knowledge consumption. Pick 2 or 3 of the best ways to feed your mind/spirit/soul and never substitute the Bible with anything else. my .02
July 17, 2007 at 14:11
I fall into the information overload trap very easily. Setting time limits, with an alarm clock if needed, has been very helpful. But most helpful has been the Holy Spirit, who seems to knock out the cable modem periodically when I’ve lost perspective.
July 17, 2007 at 15:10
I reduced my magazines to: JP (A Jeep mag), Relevant, and an ocasional HM (Hard Music). I tend to shy away from Christian magazines. I am reading “Grace (eventually)” by some lady. I “feel” I don’t read my bible “enough” but that may just be guilt injected by many past sermons. I do not read Christian “pop” books. My problem is not “not knowing” how to live, what to do, or how to to do it”. My problem is just doing it consistently. I certainly do not need a book to tell me how to pray, how to give, how to react to the latest trend. Most books just don’t encourage me much any more. I am really craving time with other believers. Last night I got invited to hang out with some teens and twenty somethings. We played that “military training grade” laser tag in farm fields. Nobody gave a sermon, prayed, or did anything religious. It was just fun to “play” and felt good to be with happy believers. I am 45 and was one of two “old guys” there. I am still feeling the energy of free-for-all atmosphere. So YES…get off your butt if you can and get out do something with other people. I suggest something fun…not another bible study or prayer meeting.
July 17, 2007 at 21:54
It’s interesting that we get somewhat overwhelmed by information/knowledge-overload… yet don’t seem to be nearly as overwhelmed by our efforts to really love others. Maybe it’s just me, but I haven’t heard too many “loving others-overload” types of complaints. This suggests a strong imbalance between orthodoxy (right thinking) and orthopraxi (right doing)...
A couple of my friends have a philosophy regarding consumerism, and I think it works for the info/ action/ time balance. If we are willing to spend, say, $30 on ourselves (for a non-essential luxury), we should also be willing (and committed) to giving an equal amount away to those who actually need it. Yes, it’s difficult to match my generosity to myself with my generosity to others, but it’s not been an impossible challenge… I’ve learnt much about sacrifice, my motives and consumption habits…
Likewise, I might spend 3 hours reading blogs, or watching telly, or writing some assignment for uni, or even reading the Bible – but these may all be largely passive-ish intakes of information, which doesn’t necessarily lead to a better world. A better mentality, perhaps, but remember What Paul said about the withoutness of love. Can we try to (at least) equal the things we are learning with non-blog/ book/ tv related action? (Oh it is hard to wean oneself off of the information-at-one’s-fingertips fix, but it is so worth it.)
Thing is, we already know what God requires of us… and that we learn the most through doing… and that “love is a verb”... so can we be content in merely reading about community/ mission/ prayer/ serving…? hmm…
July 18, 2007 at 07:43
A few years ago I determined to read the Bible first, then read the newspaper, then read the Bible again. I’m still not as consistent as I need to be, but I’m working on it.
While there are plenty of other good sources of information out there (and I have added ThinkChristian to my regular rotation :), sticking to these basics has served me well.
July 18, 2007 at 09:19
For some thoughtful Christian reflection on information overload, try Quentin Schultze, a Professor at Calvin College, who has written “Habits of the High-Tech Heart: Living Virtuously in the Information Age” and “Communicating for Life: Christian Stewardship in Community and Media”, both of which address this topic. I’ve found him to be sensible and insightful. I disagree that Christians should simply disconnect as one posting suggests; Jesus calls us to be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. Somehow Jesus managed to be engaged his surroundings, aware of current events, but not submerged by them. He also withdrew for quiet prayer regularly. I guess that’s the rhythm we need to master.