The Information Deluge: Coping with the News Overload
Reflecting on a 45-year career in tech, the author laments the shift from singular news sources to highly personalized strategies in the age of information overload. From the initial era of TV, radio, newspapers, and magazines, to the explosion of USENET and the web, news sources have multiplied exponentially, exceeding human information processing capacity. Faced with a deluge of information that's often untrustworthy or irrelevant, people have developed coping mechanisms, including complete disconnection and digital sabbaths. The author argues we need a fundamental rethink of our relationship with information, cultivating better discernment skills and building psychological and cultural defenses to navigate the chaos. This isn't a problem solvable by technology or law; it requires individual effort to improve our capacity to manage information overload.