# How do you deal with information overload ? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 30, 2016, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-deal-with-information-overload/758822 "2016-06-30T19:56:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ssgenius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5ac83/32.png) [@ssgenius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ssgenius)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2016, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-deal-with-information-overload/758822/1 "2016-06-30T19:56:02Z")
Today, there is email, messaging, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc There are 1000+ distractions plus many people are recording things with cell phones, tablets, etc Literally, everyone is getting inundated with all kinds of messages, news, etc I have been burned out by trying to follow all these messages. Virtually everyone has a cell phone and texting (especially for the younger generation) is their way of communicating. How does one stay sane with all these messages and requests coming all the time and not screw something up or make a mistake especially in this media savy world where everything is recorded looking for any problems. It makes it difficult to try to make the right decision. I tried making a schedule but it just got me further behind as I was inundated with all these distractions so much that I got burned out. Thanks ---
**Author:** ![Whitney\_Harper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f0a364/32.png) [@Whitney\_Harper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whitney_Harper)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2016, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-deal-with-information-overload/758822/2 "2016-06-30T20:10:06Z")
I agree. There is just too much of everything. Speaking for myself, when I don’t need the internet anymore, (when I’m retired), I am considering not owning a computer, but just going to my local library if I need internet access. ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2016, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-deal-with-information-overload/758822/3 "2016-06-30T20:19:15Z")
**Moderator Action** This is more advice than factual, I think. Moving thread from General Questions to In My Humble Opinion. ---
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2016, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-deal-with-information-overload/758822/4 "2016-06-30T20:23:54Z")
Delete, archive, unsubscribe, block and unfriend. ---
**Author:** ![ssgenius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5ac83/32.png) [@ssgenius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ssgenius)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2016, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-deal-with-information-overload/758822/5 "2016-06-30T20:26:21Z")
Thanks. However, easier said than done. ---
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2016, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-deal-with-information-overload/758822/6 "2016-06-30T20:50:33Z")
I turn it off and turn on Netflix or whatever Law and Order marathon USA is showing. ---
**Author:** ![usedtobe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ec9cab/32.png) [@usedtobe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/usedtobe)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2016, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-deal-with-information-overload/758822/7 "2016-06-30T21:10:47Z")
See other, amazingly dove-tailing thread: Am I alone in hating the rise in video for online news? The problem may resolve itself - if more providers switch to video, at least some of us will no longer need worry about hearing too much data\*. - - note difference between “data” and “information”. Anyone who simply provides raw data can be safely ignored. ---
**Author:** ![snfaulkner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snfaulkner/32/433_2.png) [@snfaulkner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snfaulkner)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2016, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-deal-with-information-overload/758822/8 "2016-06-30T21:30:46Z")
Booze and music. I refuse to answer or make phone calls. I refuse to even go to twitter or facebook, let alone signing up. You say you’re burned out from trying to keep up, so stop trying. Trying is the first step towards failure. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2016, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-deal-with-information-overload/758822/9 "2016-06-30T21:31:47Z")
Naps. Frequent naps. ---
**Author:** ![ssgenius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5ac83/32.png) [@ssgenius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ssgenius)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2016, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-deal-with-information-overload/758822/10 "2016-06-30T21:57:46Z")
> [@snfaulkner](#): > > Booze and music. I refuse to answer or make phone calls. I refuse to even go to twitter or facebook, let alone signing up. You say you’re burned out from trying to keep up, so stop trying. Trying is the first step towards failure. How can you get away from not making phone calls ? That seems crazy. Don’t drink. Never will. I tried for the longest time to avoid facebook but finally I signed up to it as it seemed unavoidable as that is the way the newer generation communicates. Thanks ---
**Author:** ![ssgenius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5ac83/32.png) [@ssgenius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ssgenius)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2016, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-deal-with-information-overload/758822/11 "2016-06-30T22:00:53Z")
> [@Fear\_Itself](#): > > Naps. Frequent naps. Tried that. Easier said than done. Thanks. I have heard the same from other people. ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2016, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-deal-with-information-overload/758822/12 "2016-06-30T22:01:38Z")
Why do you have to know everything _ **right now** _? See the latest movies when they come out on video, if you like the reviews. Read this year’s books next year or the year after, if they’re still in print. Watch TV shows in reruns, selectively. Check the news twice a week- you won’t miss any important stories. Deal with information after the crap has been culled out of it. It’s still knowledge. ---
**Author:** ![snfaulkner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snfaulkner/32/433_2.png) [@snfaulkner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snfaulkner)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2016, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-deal-with-information-overload/758822/13 "2016-06-30T22:02:52Z")
> [@ssgenius](#): > > How can you get away from not making phone calls ? That seems crazy. Just say no. I don’t turn my music down/pause my movie for anyone’s whim but my own. Text first and I’ll get back to you when I’m ready. > [@](#): > > Don’t drink. Never will. It’s not for everybody. > [@](#): > > I tried for the longest time to avoid facebook but finally I signed up to it as it seemed unavoidable as that is the way the newer generation communicates. > > Thanks I guess I don’t see the need to communicate with anyone. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2016, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-deal-with-information-overload/758822/14 "2016-06-30T23:05:19Z")
> [@ssgenius](#): > > How can you get away from not making phone calls ? That seems crazy. This sounds more like OCD. Seriously. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2016, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-deal-with-information-overload/758822/15 "2016-06-30T23:27:28Z")
> [@snfaulkner](#): > > Booze and music. I refuse to answer or make phone calls. I refuse to even go to twitter or facebook, let alone signing up. You say you’re burned out from trying to keep up, so stop trying. Trying is the first step towards failure. Couldn’t have said it better. I crank up the music, pop open a beer. Don’t have a smartphone, don’t twitface or any of that bullshit. I take the dogs out in the desert everyday, sit and drink beer while they hunt for mice and packrats in the rocks. Listen to music and feel the wind. Sometimes I make cairns on the slopes. Every TV, computer and phone I’ve seen has an “Off” switch. ---
**Author:** ![ssgenius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5ac83/32.png) [@ssgenius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ssgenius)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2016, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-deal-with-information-overload/758822/16 "2016-07-01T00:09:09Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > This sounds more like OCD. Seriously. After reading about OCD, that seems quite similar to what I am going through. Thanks ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2016, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-deal-with-information-overload/758822/17 "2016-07-01T01:03:43Z")
I live in a Faraday cage build into a CONEX container buried ten meters underground in central Idaho with ELF cancellation generator and a field of automated sentry gun emplacements with overlapping fields of fire, and for the extreme case of people who just don’t understand the whole “unfriending” concept, a Big Boy mini-nuke launcher. You know the Brotherhood of Steel? That’s me, except they had to make it out to be like fifty guys just to make it seem not implausible. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2016, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-deal-with-information-overload/758822/18 "2016-07-01T01:29:28Z")
I ditched cable and where I live I can’t receive any “live” TV except PBS. So I never watch TV news. I get all my news coverage from the internet, but I don’t watch videos, even when they’re on my two primary news sites, The New York Times and the Washington Post. I listen to NPR when I’m in the car. I get the local paper online but don’t always look at it every day. I don’t do Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Snapchat, or really \*\*any \*\*social media. At all. I do take naps. ---
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2016, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-deal-with-information-overload/758822/19 "2016-07-01T02:08:14Z")
Although I spend most of my work day in front of a computer and many hours online at home, I am “disconnected” the rest of the time. I don’t do Facebook. My phone is almost always off. When I go on vacation I take a small laptop, my phone and my iPod, but honestly the best days are when I’m someplace that doesn’t have a network or wi-fi available. ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2016, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-deal-with-information-overload/758822/20 "2016-07-01T13:06:36Z")
I never got involved in any social media networks (besides the SDMB). I’m tempted to do Facebook once in a while, but I don’t have or really want a large circle of friends and have no desire to reconnect to people I hardly knew. Their are really only 3 people that need to know my ‘status’. My Wife, my Mom that I take care of peripherally and my boss (if I’m not coming into work). This is all done easily through calling, email or text. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-deal-with-information-overload/758822.md?page=2)