Thursday, April 3, 2014

Information Overload

I read.  A lot.  Books, blogs, magazine articles, posts, tweets, texts, content, collateral, newsfeeds.  It’s in my nature.  I read at home.  I read at work.  I read when I’m waiting to pick up my kid from practice.  I read when we head to our cabin, and when I’m waiting in a drive through, and at the doctor, and while I’m cooking dinner.   In 2013 I read 115 books.  You get the picture.

Lately, I seem to be on information overload.  I’m sure my husband thinks I’m an information junkie.  I’m tied to my phone, and my Kindle, and information that has nothing to do with me.  When I sit down at my desk in the morning, I open my work email.  Before it even loads, I head right to the internet and open Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Gmail, and Amazon.   Then I open two Facebook work accounts, two work Twitters, Pinterest, and Google Plus.   Then I go back to my email.  I must note, though, I had already looked at my email before 7 am.  That’s on my phone.  My work account, our home account, a gmail account, and my kids accounts.    I’ll be honest.  I don’t read everything in my email.  If its Facebook notifications, or LinkedIn notifications, or Groupon, or Amazon or Google Alerts, they get deleted, or saved elsewhere.  In the six accounts I have on my phone, there are 507 unread messages, most of which have been scanned and marked as new so I can go back to them.  In the next month or so, that number will double.  Although it’s only April, we are leading into planning for the upcoming football season.  I send out emails to about 200 parents on an as needed basis.  That blog is for another day.


Back to information overload.  Because I read so much on social media platforms, I get caught up in the feed (aka drama in some cases).    I’ll admit it.  I get caught up in my friends lives.  I want to know what’s going on.   I’ll mention something to my husband and he gives me this blank stare that basically says “I don’t care”.  I get that.  I really do.  Why I am so fascinated by what goes on in other’s lives amazes me.  Sometimes I think I should be a Gossip Columnist.  I would rock that job.  If you could see me when I scan feeds I shake my head and chuckle quietly.  The ups and downs of a single person astounds me.  No one has that much drama in their life.     And, honestly, why do people find it necessary to have conversations via Twitter?  Isn’t that what texting or PM’ing is for?  What could you have possibly said in 16,000 tweets?

For now I'll continue reading.  I will, however, make a conscious effort to avoid (reading) the drama.

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