Ah, I'm sick and tired of hearing things
From uptight, short-sighted, narrow-minded hypocrites
All I want is the truth now
Just gimme some truth now

-John Lennon

Sometimes I think there is just too much information out there. Its just amazing to think about the amount off verbal, written and aural ideas we absorb on a daily basis.

1880 - A farmer in Minnesota

Informationn absorbed.

-The weather
-The thoughts of his family
-Perhaps a book, farm report, newspaper
-Once per week in town the thoughts of his preacher, fellowparishionerss and the friends at the General Store.
-Daughter plays piano

I imagine that sorting out what was true and false and what was meaningful was a lot easier then. Of course that is discounting the existential questions of truth.

My information intake on a daily basis.

-Several newspapers
-Several hundred advertisements
-Books
-Magazines
-Web sites
-Blogs
-Mobile phone calls
-Land line phone calls
-Dozens of emails
-Instant Messaging
-TV
-Radio
-Ipod
-Interactions with workcolleaguess
-Interactions with dozens of people on the streets of my city
-Interactions with friends
-Interactions with family

Hundreds of thousands of words and ideas reach me every day. Filtering them, making sense of them, processing them, arranging them, remembering them, is really becoming an overwhelming task. Has our ability to process information been exponentially surpassed by the amount of information we absorb every day?

Whateffects does this have on individual and group behavior? What effect does it have on our evolution as a species?

Is there any chance we can with any degree of successseparatee truths from falsehoods? Has the information overload made it impossible to accurately asses what is likely true? What is real? What is important?

Are we taken advantage of on a daily basis by the principal that if you tell us too much, it all becomes white noise and therefore meaningful and critical thinking becomes impossible, with the result being that anyone with a message canachievee their goals by stealth?

How much information do you take in? How has it affected you? How much information do you produce? I want to think more about the answers to these questions because I don't know the answers right now. I believe the answers and how we deal with them will have a profound effect on our current and future lives.