Information overload. Information and Knowledge.

Information overload. Information and Knowledge.

Information is data that has been processed in such a way as to be meaningful and useful. Data, on the other hand, is raw, unprocessed facts. Information is thus a higher-level construct than data. Information overload is a condition in which an individual's brain becomes overwhelmed with information, often to the point of being unable to process it all. It is a problem which has been acknowledged by many people and organizations in recent years. There are many ways to prevent information overload, including limiting the amount of information you consume, scheduling time to read, and taking breaks. Information overload can lead to serious health risks like stress, anxiety, depression, and poor decision-making.

 There are four main ways in which one can drown in a sea of information:

1. By failing to process data into information.

2. By failing to filter information properly.

3. By failing to organize information in a meaningful way.

4. By failing to use information in a constructive way.

 To drown in information is to not turn data into information. To transform data into information, we need to process the data. This process can be done manually or using a computer. However, it is important to note that not all data can be processed into information. Some data is useless because it is raw data or unstructured.

 Information, according to Bateson, is "anything that makes sense. Then what do you call something that doesn't make sense, or whose meaning has not yet been discovered? That is data. Thus, information is processed data. Let's illustrate this approach with the following example. Imagine that you have come to a remote rural area. You have never been there, you don't know the people, the local customs and rules - in short, everything is new to you. And suddenly you hear the local church bell ringing. What does that mean to you? Nothing. Just a sound. It's data. But then you notice that the locals have left their homes and gone to church in an orderly fashion. Obviously, to them, the sound of the bell is not just noise, it is a call to gather. What is noise to you is information to the locals. Because it makes sense.

 Data is noise. Information is processed data. Information always makes sense. And it is always less than the data.

  • Data is noise.
  • Information is processed data.
  • -information always makes sense

 So, information is the data that has been processed. It gives us a new understanding of the world, encourages us to act, and brings us closer to the goal. In this regard, the term "information overload", which is used by many scientists, in my opinion, is not entirely correct. We live, rather, in conditions of data overload.

It is difficult to agree that four hours spent mindlessly flipping through the social media feed contributes to the growth of awareness, brings you closer to the goal, motivates you to take some action. Most often in such cases, we only kill time by passively consuming data. Today, their volume is so large that the brain is literally overloaded. Critical thinking, on the contrary, turns off almost completely. The brain cannot cope with such a load.

It is difficult to say whether the increase in life expectancy and the decrease in mortality rates are good or bad things. On the one hand, it is obviously good that people are living longer and healthier lives. On the other hand, the increased processing of data and information may have negative consequences that we are not yet aware of.

The number of people suffering from mental illness is growing all over the world. The reason is clear: we have not adapted to the huge amount of data that falls on our heads literally every second. After all, something needs to be done with this data. How do we react to them? It could be assumed that we filter them: unnecessary data, i.e. those that are not information, we filter out: it flew into one ear, it flew out of the other. Alas, this is not the case.

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