I just wanted to point out that my understanding of Inbox Zero fits pretty well with your “If I want the information I get it, if I don’t, I don’t” approach. Proper use of Inbox Zero is to DO something with stuff in your e-mail inbox. If you can respond to an e-mail, or add something from an e-mail to your schedule you do it right away and delete/archive the e-mail as dealt with. The idea is that when you open your e-mail you do it when you have time to make a little progress, and you don’t have to wade through irrelevant stuff. I’m sure you could apply the philosophy to other media that let you remove ‘done’ things from view.

I agree though that “Information Overload” is largely self induced. When I feel that way it’s because I feel like I’m going to miss out on something. For example I’ve been binge reading this blog for a couple days now in my free time, but when I’ve had enough of you for a bit I just open another tab to something else. Yay tabs.

@ Mike:

Well, maybe I just don’t have an addictive personality. I feel that you can totally be connected and plugged in without it every feeling overwhelming.

@ Lopez:

No, that’s not what I’m saying. What I’m saying is that solution to overeating is to develop healthy eating habits: eat regularly in smaller portions. Eat when you’re hungry not when you’re bored or anxious. Eat until you are no longer hungry, not until you are so full can’t fathom taking another bite. I think this philosophy translates pretty directly to information intake:

The solution to information overload is not to starve yourself off social media but to use them responsibly and in moderation.

Saying that the solution to information overload is to not be as curious is the same as say that the solution to overeating is to not be as hungry.

You get little information, and it’s fine.
You get more, it’s kinda awesome, you want more.
You get much more, you want even more-more-more, until it indeed conditions you to some kind of failure.

It looks like yet-another infinitely self-reinforcing habit (aka addiction) to me, so while the “stop it” advice is indeed correct, I don’t think it’s as easy as that for these who have it worst.
Some (I think I heard either “third” or “most”, not very reliable data) people can quit smoking by just going cold-turkey, I suppose some can give up this addiction in the same fashion.

For a safer way out, imho, step one is to indeed read this post and especially “I mean, if your information intake is overwhelming you…” logical-contradicton argument and recognize the real problem, but step two might be something like “find medium you tend to ignore easily” (irc, for me), “pipe others into that one” (e.g. rss-to-irc, reddit-to-irc, twittter-to-irc, im-to-irc, …) – your brain, conditioned to treat thing as discardable, along with some will not to reprogram it (knowing the problem), will do the rest.

@ Robert:

Well, I choose to believe it would be just as easy, because the alternative is just too frightening for me to fathom. It would mean that one day in the near future I too will be left behind, faced with some new technology that I can’t fully grok. I desperately do not want to be the old guy who has to call a 12 year old kid to help him push the reset button or some future device (or something equally embarrassing). So I hope that the ability to learn and adjust your lifestyle does not magically switch off after you reach a certain age and that it is just a matter of attitude and effort.

Luke, I wouldn’t say that digital immigrants _can’t_ learn to control the inherent human desire for more information; it’s just harder, and up to a point the older the immigrant the harder it is. (The very old, who never fully grasp the Internet and computers, don’t have this information addiction problem.) You were, after all, still a young lad when you immigrated to digital land. Imagine how different it would have been if you’d been 15 or 20 years older.

@ Matt`:

Yup exactly. You may think you need to absorb everything in your “feed” but the truth is that if you don’t keep up nothing bad ever happens. The really good stuff will be re-posted on the front page of reddit till the heat death of the universe, and you can actually catch up on Facebook gossip the old fashioned way via the grapevine. The other stuff doesn’t really matter. :)

@ Robert:

Btw, I grew up in a pure analog environment. The first apartment complex we lived in did not have a land-line hookup curtsey of fucked up post-soviet bureaucracy. It took them like a decade to actually drag copper wire to our building so before that if I wanted to call my grandmother I had to run down the block and use a phone booth.

There was an old phone booth with a dilapidated rotary phone right outside our school. Kids would learn to solder phreaking kits in the shop so that they could make free long distance calls.

Hell, I didn’t even get on the internet till I was like a junior in HS, and didn’t have broadband till I went to college. So I am by no means a digital native. But I have learned to manage pretty well. :)

@ FX:

That is a very good observation. That’s exactly what goes through my head when I hear another person bragging about how they quit Facebook. Well, whooptie do – why was this an issue for you anyway? I’m beginning to suspect it is an image thing like you said. Just like people who brag about not having a TV in their house. Like this was some kind of an achievement. I mean, I totally agree that most of the crap on TV is crappy and not worth wasting my time on, but I still have a TV so that I can comfortably watch the shows and/or movies I do enjoy.

@ Mrjones2015:

I don’t know – for me there are still plenty of waiting times: doctors office, dentist office, DMV, etc… Also traffic. I kinda want Google Glasses just so I can browse the web while I’m stuck in traffic during the morning commute… Actually, on second thought maybe not – that sounds way dangerous.

Maybe the purpose of the term “bombardment” was not to imply that information is forced into users, but users accepting to be “bombarded” with so much quick and useless information (“for teh lulz”) that they are rather a way of entertainment than of gaining any knowledge.
I assume people want their life to be as extreme as a michael bay movie, because nowadays almost everybody finds it impossible to do nothing. There are no more waiting times (for the bus, in a line in the supermarket, coffee break), there are only small gaps that urgently need to be filled with facebook and twitter feeds.

There’s a whole “I’m in the tech business but oh, noes, I don’t like it that much, you understand” mentality floating around. From journalists being so proud that they’ve quit using their iPhone for a month to the recent Facebook bashing trend — at least in some circles — it’s seemingly a very fashionable thing to an anti-tech techie. In the end, it’s all about appearances to me.

They’re right on one count though, it can be pretty hard for some to balance their personal life correctly, and to know when to stop browsing Tumblr when they’re hanging out with other people, because that’s fucking impolite.

The problem old people have with the Internet (and I say this as someone who is several hundred years old) (subjectively; actual years may vary) is that they grew up in an environment of information scarcity, and difficult and expensive communications. You’re talking about people who had to use special tricks to communicate long distance, like person A making a collect call to person B, and person B refusing to accept the charges, the point of which was to give person B the message that person A had arrived home safely or some such code. An actual phone call was too expensive. You’re talking about people who would have to wait for wood pulp to be mashed into sheets and printed with ink, rolled up into bundles, and then thrown onto their porch by some kid on a bike, so that they could read about what happened yesterday. If they missed an episode of their favorite TV show, they would very likely _never have another chance_ to see it. It was gone forever. We’re talking about a world where contacting people with zeros in their phone number took more time and physical effort than contacting people with a lot of 1’s. (Rotary dials, kids; look it up.)

Having grown up in this sort of environment, adapting to the instant availability of all the news in the world, as it happens, and the ability to watch endless entertainment, at any time, and communicate with nearly anyone, nearly anywhere, takes a lot of getting used to.

You kids who grew up swimming in the information sea, though, shouldn’t have so much trouble. Luke, you’re quite right about that. The solution is to unfuck yourself and stop giving a shit.