Information Addiction
By Emily Girolamo
According to the Daily Mail, the average person looks at their device 1,500 times per week. Our attention spans have dropped to 8 seconds, 1 second less than a goldfish (National Center for Biotechnology Information). And, every two days we create as much information as we did between the dawn of civilization through 2003 (Eric Schmidt).
We can't get enough of it, because as a basic need for humans, we strive to improve through learning. But what happens when we go over the maximum number of pieces of information the human brain can handle concurrently, by the way is seven (Miller's Law)? Our minds shut down, we make poor decisions, we become stressed which releases hormones throughout the body that can consequently make us overwhelmed, tired, and sick.
Why do we do this to ourselves? Why do we need to know the latest thought Kim Kardashian had about who knows what? (or who really cares)?
We are missing out. We are missing out on deeper relationships with others. We are missing out on precious time spent with family. We are missing out on the connections we need.
Don't get me wrong, I am a strong believer in seeking out the truth. And, it could very well be buried somewhere under an article that linked to a white paper that linked to a blog, that linked to a tweet.
But, until you find a way to manage your time spent online, or quickly find exactly what you're looking for, I suggest setting some limits (online timers work great) to the amount of time and energy you spend in the endless sea of data, content, posts, and that of the like.