Dealing with information overload

Posted August 24th @ 5:18 pm by Andy Print This Post

Some musings at The Christian Mind blog about coping with information overload. We’ve discussed the “too much of a good thing” problem here before, but it continues to be a challenge for me.

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1 Comments

mo
August 26, 2007 at 00:14

I think the way we receive and process information changes with the sheer volume of it. I read an article on BNet that said that the amount of internet information doubles every 18 months. This has huge ramifications for how we do church, share the gospel, and experience encouragement and fellowship. Never has the opportunity been greater for both isolation or connection. I find myself wrestling with how that should look in different aspects of my experiences as a follower of Christ.

In working with young people I am also seeing a great capacity for processing multiple information sources simultaneously. In fact, I’ve read some things about how operating on information overload may be rewiring our very brains.

All I know is that the more wired I become the more divergent my thinking gets. I’ve found myself in the course of a 40 minute sermon I’ve probably gone online on the phone three times to find Bible verses besides those referenced in the sermon, looked up historical background, investigate a theological point…and maybe checking my email and the news and sending a text to my friend across the sanctuary.

Listening seems passive but listening without doing anything else doesn’t feel active…but I think active listening implies giving full attention…just sitting there takes a tremendous amount of self control for me.

I wonder whether lectures in school and sermons in church may be even harder for kids who have never lived in a time when there wasn’t information overload. Time and human energy doesn’t double with the information.

In trying to put some boundaries around my brain
I’ve had to ask some hard questions. How much do I need to know? What will knowing this accomplish? How many sources do I actually need to supply this information? How much eternal consequence do my many electronic interactions bear?