TOW#557 — How do we stay normal in the face of the information overload we’re exposed to?
The world I live in increasingly reminds me of a spinning top — spinning beautifully and evenly until the moment it slows down and falls in a whirl. It seems to me that we’re somewhere at that moment just before stopping and falling.
Why?
Because in the last two decades, we’ve reached a speed of life that is destroying everything that’s worth anything on this planet. We’re inundated with a huge amount of information that’s changing very quickly. At the same time, if you have a read of a newspaper from 10–15 years ago, you’ll notice hardly any difference compared to what’s happening today, especially when it comes to topics related to my country Bosnia-Herzegovina. The characters are a bit different, but the stories and themes are more or less the same, or very similar.
If you follow all that, and read the news because you want to stay informed, you’re guaranteed to go crazy and be constantly nervous, scared, angry and fearful.
The other day a girl on Twitter wrote that she’s never liked watching shows in which people talk about different topics because “who cares what someone else thinks about something”?! I paused to think about how ingenious her statement was. For a long time I had different opinions about all manner of things, and wanted to find out what everyone else thought. And then at one point it started bubbling out of my head. I literally felt my head burst from too much information and opinions. Worst of all, I no longer knew what I thought about anything.
And I stopped. Now, like that girl, I don’t watch anyone. I don’t follow the news and I don’t even read portals. If something important happens, I find out on the social media that I visit a couple of times a day (only from verified people). Or my husband, mum or dad tells me.
It’s not that I feel reborn or anything, it’s simply the way I survive at the moment. Quite literally, the negativity, darkness and hollow stories of our politicians no longer get under my skin. The election campaign is still on-going, a time when politicians appear from out of nowhere, like lizards from under rocks when the Sun gets hot.
I no longer have the stomach nor the brain to hear their promises, or anything they have to say over the next two months. What’s important to me for any decision in the elections is everything they’ve done in the past four years. You can tell fairytales all you want, but the only thing that matters to me is the tangible things you’ve left behind.
And somehow I’m sure I’m not alone in this way of thinking.
Let’s go back to the spinning top and its fall. I’m sure each of us has a limit when it comes to the amount of information we can absorb. Maybe I reached mine earlier because of the books I’ve read thus far, so I don’t have room for others’ opinions and thoughts. Still, with the huge load of information we receive every day, from news, through portals, posters on the streets, leaflets, social media that are glued to our eyes… soon everyone’s cup will overflow.
And what happens then? You get angry, nervous, sad, insecure, frightened… Or you get sick, either physically or mentally.
Because, it’s not easy to stop and say to yourself: “Hey, I’m going to check how much time I spend listening to others and reading all the different opinions that someone’s written somewhere.”
It’s not at all easy to separate people who’re worth listening to from those who talk nonsense and bring panic and nervousness, and to top it all off they take up memory in your head. It’s not surprising that the number of people doing things like running, hiking or anything that includes spending time in nature and getting away from civilisation is constantly growing. But despite their increasing numbers, they’re still a minority that might be aware of what the problem is and what bothers them, or maybe they’re simply following a feeling that tells them “This is good, it suits me”.
The other day in an interview a person dear to me said that she’d like all social media to be banned. So, I thought a bit about what she said: “Oh, how would that be — good or bad?”
I didn’t know how to answer that question for myself, but I often fantasise about leaving that world. I fantasise, but I don’t find the strength because my job and everything I do is still related to them. However, after what she said, I started thinking about what it would be like to try to think about a way to gear my life towards detaching myself from the need to be present on there. Or leave only one. Instagram, of course, because how else would I follow Beckham and the actors from the series La Casa de Papel :)
It’s just that, for a while now I’ve been feeling envious whenever I meet someone who doesn’t have social media profiles or sticks to just one. I constantly think that by withdrawing from that world I wouldn’t be connected with people, and there are a lot of them that I want to be in touch with.
This isn’t the first time that I’m writing about this and I don’t like the fact that I constantly have to look for a balance between connecting with the world and myself. It slips too easily into extremes where you spend hours with others and forget to listen to yourself.
This is why the world reminds me of a spinning top that’s about to fall.
Because I didn’t even mention the race for money that the owners of social media have placed at the forefront of their plans and work, so only the information that someone has paid for actually reaches you. And I didn’t mention the algorithms that lock you in a circle of like-minded people so you have no idea what’s happening with people who disagree with your views and opinions. So then you go outside and say “Wait a goddamn minute, this isn’t even close to what I saw on Facebook…”
The issue is, very few people will make a conscious effort to hear different views and perhaps try to understand what’s behind them. 98% of people just block out everything that doesn’t fit with the vision of the world they want, and in which they feel safe.
So to return to the question from the title — how to stay normal today and what are our chances? Unfortunately, I think that each of us must take care of ourselves, because it’s unlikely that something will happen in the near future to fix all this or bring it under some kind of control. That’s why each of us is tasked with saving ourselves and finding a way to watch what ‘gets into’ our heads. It’s not at all easy or simple, but it may be the most important thing you can do for your health.
What do you think about all of this and do you also get information overload sometimes? How does it affect you?
Hana Kazazović,
https://cyberbosanka.me/
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