Others like ‘infobesity’ are literally music to my ears. 

At no point in history have humans had to deal with this much information in a constant stream. We are bombarded with information via our phones, the TV, the radio, marketing emails, print media, and death by PowerPoint meetings 24/7. 

Although the stream of information in such quantities is a new phenomenon, the concept and indeed the phrase ‘information overload’ isn’t a new one. The phrase was in fact coined in 1964 by Bertram Gross, the Professor of Political Science at Hunter College. He describes three types of information overload: 

• Too much information 
• Not enough time to process it
• Mediocre quality information 

I think that all of us suffer with all three every single day. 

Dangers of Infobesity

Like obesity, infobesity can be detrimental to your health, as it can lead to stress, anxiety, lack of focus and decision fatigue. Too much information can prevent you from making clear decisions, and you can reach a point where you feel your brain literally cannot take in any more information. 

• Where should we go to lunch?
• What book should I read next?
• What should I watch on Netflix? 
• What should I wear today? 

The brain, however, is a marvellous thing and will try to manage the flow of data and information, and subconsciously you will start taking notice of some information and ignoring others. This sounds like a great solution but if you have no control, how do you know you are ignoring the right stuff? 

The only way of ensuring that you take notice of the important things, is to reduce the overwhelm. And to do this is to reduce the information input. There are several ways to do this and it all depends on what your saturation point is. But three key strategies are: 

What information do you need to see? What content makes you feel uplifted? What content helps you grow as a person? Would you rather spend time with people IRL or online? 

There will be things you can expel from your life. Things or even people that depress you, wind you up, or leave you feeling inadequate. Bin them. 

‘How we spend our days, is of course, how we spend our lives’ (Annie Dillard). Do we want to spend our lives doom scrolling, watching glorified adverts, and arguing with strangers on the internet? Or do we want to spend our lives in the real world, arguing with real people, and experiencing everything the world has to offer? 

Once you start to limit the information you are bombarded with you can lose the infopounds and the associated stress. It could start by muting those 23 WhatsApp groups, thinning out your followers on social media, and have device-free evenings or weekends. 

For me, I stopped watching the news first thing in the morning as it was defining my day. Instead I take my tea back to bed and read a book for 30 minutes. When I am with people in real life I keep my phone in my pocket so I am not tempted to check it, but as I removed most SM from my phone there is little to check anyway. I only answer the phone if it is convenient to me and filter any emails with ‘unsubscribe’ at the bottom into a folder which I check once a week. And I always skip the ads wherever possible. 

Will these changes solve all the problems of infobesity? Absolutely not. But they can get you on a path where you control what you see, when you see it and for how long you see it for. 

If you would like to discuss outsourcing your content writing to free up time, or you would like to switch out your scrolling time to write your first book then email me and we can have a chat.