Crisis Fatigue

[Richard]

Something to consider.

Richard's $.02

Crisis Fatigue
Kathleen Parker, TH, 1 Apr 2009

What if everybody just took a timeout?

Now there's a concept for a TMI-addled nation. It isn't only Too Much Information, but the pitch and tenor of delivery that have us in a persistent state of psychic frenzy. From cable news to microblogs to the latest -- "Fox Nation" -- life's background music has become one prolonged car alarm.

The market's up! The Dow plunges! Obama fired the GM CEO! Greta's husband helped Palin!! OMG, Obama's taking 500 people to Europe and Merkel doesn't like his new deal and they're taking our assault weapons and we're all going to be communists!!

But first, if your erection lasts more than four hours, contact your physician immediately.

The phrase "too much information," a now-cliched talk-to-the-hand deflection, isn't just a gentle whack at someone who tells you more than you want to know about his Cialis experience. It's a toxic asset that exhausts our cognitive resources while making the nonsensical seem significant.

TMI may indeed be the despot's friend. Keep citizens so overwhelmed with data that they can't tell what's important and eventually become incapable of responding to what is. Our brains simply aren't wired to receive and process so much information in such a compressed period.

In 2006, the world produced 161 exabytes (an exabyte is 1 quintillion bytes) of digital data, according to Columbia Journalism Review. Put in perspective, that's 3 million times the information contained in all the books ever written. By next year, the number is expected to reach 988 exabytes.

The massive explosion of information has made us all a little batty. Just ask the congressional assistants who field frantic phone calls from constituents.

"Everybody's come unhinged," one told me recently. "They think we're going to hell in a handbasket. And maybe we are."

Who knows?

The unknowingness of current circumstances, combined with a lack of trust in our institutions, may partly be to blame for our apparent info-insatiability. People sense that they need to know more in order to understand an increasingly complex world.

And, of course, it's fun. The urge to know and be known is a uniquely human indulgence. Being connected to friends and colleagues without having to inconvenience one's gluteus maximus surely must stimulate our pleasure center, or else we wouldn't bother.

Yet, with so much data coming from all directions, we risk paralysis. Brain freeze, some call it. More important, we also risk losing our ability to process the Big Ideas that might actually serve us better. It isn't only Jack and Jill who are tethered to the twittering masses, after all. Our thinkers at the highest levels are, too.

Consider: Who didn't want to surrender his BlackBerry?

In fact, brain research shows that we do our best thinking when we're not engaged and focused, yet fewer of us have time for downtime. (If you have to schedule relaxation, is it still relaxing?)

Daydreaming, we used to call it. Ask any creative person where they got their best ideas and they'll say, "Dunno. Just came to me out of the blue." If you're looking for Eureka -- as in the Aha! moment -- you probably won't find it while following David Gregory's tweets. Or checking Facebook to see who might be "friending" whom. Or what George Orwell is ...

More likely, the ideas that save the world will present themselves in the shower or while we're sweeping the front stoop. What the world needs now isn't more, but less. The alternative to mindless activities for the mindful won't be a less-informed nation, but a dumber one.

Unchecked "infomania" -- yes, there's even a term for this instapathology -- can lead to a lower IQ, according to a 2005 Hewlett-Packard study. The research, conducted by a University of London psychologist, found that people distracted by e-mail and phone calls lost 10 IQ points, more than twice the impact of smoking marijuana -- or comparable to losing a night's sleep.

Given that the brain is apparently more receptive when less focused, might our myriad problems stand a better chance of creative solutions were we more unplugged? In the literal sense, that is.

Back in the day, Timothy Leary urged boomers to "turn on, tune in, drop out," which was his snappy way of encouraging the mind-expanding benefits of LSD. (It came to him in the shower, natch.)

A more-apt mantra today might be "turn off, tune out, drop in." Turn off the switch, tune out the noise, drop in on a friend.

Can't hurt. Might help.

Hitting pause now ...

http://townhall.com/columnists/Kathl...crisis_fatigue

[Red Flag 1]

Great topic!!

Over the past few months, I've limited myself to two hours/day of media input. Even before the "election", I was just saturated to the point of confusion. Pundits, "news", commentary, analysis, and even commercials were just too over the top. My wife would keep the "news" on in the backgroud so she would not miss something. It was not uncommon to see the same "news alert", "breaking news", and"news flash" repaeted for three hours with no real change in the "news". My wife's alternative was HGTV; my alternative was a John Wayne movie....now there's harmony for ya!

The media today is just way too demanding to be taken seriously for 24/7. Even with my home town of Binghamton, NY in the news, a few short minutes on FOX told me all I needed to know. I do take in a bit of ABC, NBC, and CBS to get another view. Local/National/World news via print media offers another view. I am comfortable with a few hours a day considering the "news". If I have my head in the sand, so be it. There are other things that need my attention.

As for side effects from Cialis, get some naked photos of our Sec of State, or Speaker of the House.....it might save you a trip to the ER.

Great thread Richard!

RF 1

[Surf n Turf]

Do I hear an AMEN?

SnT

[Sigaba]

Sounds like Ms. Parker may be visiting ps.com <<LINK>>

But first, if your erection lasts more than four hours, contact your physician immediately.

I don't remember the comedian's name, but he said "Call my doctor? Hell, I'm calling EVERYBODY."

[Gypsy]

Originally Posted by Richard

Something to consider.

And I have. To be honest, although my capacity for "stuff" is rather large, I've had to take a step back here and there. Part of me has felt like a "bad" citizen for not being "tuned in" to learn/read/discuss/fret about the latest and in many cases not so greatest...but I'll get over it.

[ZonieDiver]

Originally Posted by Gypsy

And I have. To be honest, although my capacity for "stuff" is rather large, I've had to take a step back here and there. Part of me has felt like a "bad" citizen for not being "tuned in" to learn/read/discuss/fret about the latest and in many cases not so greatest...but I'll get over it.

Last week, on two separate local channel's newscasts (I, too, have cast the evil cable demon from my home. I go watch cable in a bar - the monthly cable bill equals about ten beers at happy hour time!), the local "news" readers used the terms "Global Economic Meltdown" and "Economic Meltdown" within minutes of each other (I was "channel surfing" amonst the four I get.) The near panic in their voices got me thinking (I try to limit that these days).

Amidst this "global economic meltdown" and in a state where the economy is supposedly worse of than many others, I only know - personally - ONE person who has lost a job. That person was my younger daughter in LA, and she had a new job in the same field at a higher rate of pay the next day in San Diego. What I thought was, "Am I the only one?" So, I'd pose the question: How many people do you personally know (not a "friend of a friend" or someone you "heard about") who have lost a job due to the "meltdown"?

Thanks for playing...

[Paslode]

I tossed out cable for a few months after the election which did help, but I missed the History, Discovery and Military channels so I went to Dish. My political intake is limited to Radio with Glenn Beck and couple local stations that I listen to going from job to job. Aside from that there are a couple websites I frequent for news and I visit here for what tends to be a more level headed conversation of happenings.

But even with that stimulation which I can turn off ot log off, there is no escaping it. Whether it is a vendor or a customer, one of the first questions they ask is how is business? Are you doing alright? And then I hear about the people they know that lost their jobs, or the ones they have or are going to layoff.

I can't even go to a Scout Pack meeting without hearing about job loss.


I can run, but I can't hide from it.

[Sigaba]

Originally Posted by ZonieDiver

Thanks for playing...

ZD--

I'll play.

In my circle of friends, only one has received a letter that begins with anything like the following.

Due to the weakened economy and its impact on our workload, as of today, we must end our employment relationship with you.

He's not bitter.

[airbn5]

I only know one person who was laid off due to the economy. He was out of a job for less than a week before he found a better one.

[Penn]

Sigaba....I'm calling everybody....Very Funny!!!! Even funnier that you posted it.
I think today you have to create your own job if you want controll of your future.

I watch educational and Bloomberg, or the like exculsively. Rarely, if ever, do I tune in to the major news out. The level of sensationlization is overwhelming, but everyone here knows that already. One additional thought: with the closure of all print news within the next 10 years, there will be no reporting on TV., Orwell will have finally arrive at that point.