Free yourself from 'information overload'
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
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My internet went out this weekend. Oh, I'm sorry. And it was actually possibly a blessing. It went out like it can't be fixed until tomorrow. So truly nothing could be done.
Oh, like out, out.
Yeah. I don't know what happened. It was out since Saturday morning. So suddenly the spigot was turned off of information. Yeah. I was like, what will become of me? Like my home suddenly seemed like a much different place, too.
You know, less a void where you park your meat bag so that you can enter the vortex of your phone and other virtual worlds.
That was Manoush Samarody, host of TED Radio Hour. And I'm Mariel Segarra. You're listening to Life Kit.
What happened when Manoush experienced an unexpected internet outage and why did it feel like a blessing?
So I was telling Manoush about my analog weekend. And it was like, oh, usually I have the TV on as a companion or usually I'll also have my laptop in my lap and be like just browsing, just browsing things while I'm looking online. And now I can't do any of that. So quickly I took down my laptop. prose translation of Shakespeare.
No, come on. You did not.
I did. You were like, if we're going analog, we are going all analog. All the way in. Yeah. And I started reading Othello. It didn't take long for me to fill in the blanks and look for more information. But what was nice is it was a limited type of information. It's like from this book, I can get information about Shakespeare.
I mean, I'm impressed that you still have Shakespeare on your shelves, first of all, and that you knew where it was. And did you find that you were able to sort of relax with the book in a way that perhaps you might not have been had your phone been sitting there pinging alongside you?
Yeah, there wasn't too much for me and my partner to do. So I was actually reading him Shakespeare.
Oh, that's really romantic. It was really sweet. Also, it means that you weren't doing something that, you know, researchers call that where you're multimedia tasking. Yeah. Like switching from screen to different screen to another screen.
Yeah.
If you're chilling and that's fun for you, great. Just don't think that you're actually taking in information properly from any one of the screens that you are flitting to and fro from.
Yeah. There's a chapter of the book where you talk about avoiding information overload. Yeah. And that feels really important to me in my personal life because I feel like I'm almost getting sick on information. Like I'm a little nauseous on information, you know? So much candy. Yeah, it's too much. Y'all ever feel like this? Lucky for us, Manoush has done a lot of reporting on well-being in the digital age, and she has advice for us. On this episode of Life Kit, we talk about a chapter of her new book, Body Electric, and it's all about information overload. How would you define information overload?
This is something that I too have struggled with immensely. So I really went down a rabbit hole to try to understand like what was going on in my brain. Was this actually something new? And was there anything bad about trying to get all this information into my brain? And it turns out the word for it is infomania.
How do hosts introduce the episode and frame the problem of constant screen exposure?
sort of compulsion to take in more information. And it goes back centuries to the 13th century. And there was worries that people would try to put too much information into their brains.
I'm picturing like Belle in the library in the castle with the beast.
So many books. So many books. And could I actually, because what I felt like I was doing, and maybe this sounds familiar to you, is like, sure, I could read all of these things or watch all these things or take it all in. But then I was like, what am I actually doing with it? Like, do I remember what I've read? Am I making connections between them? Am I processing it in a way that it's like getting stored in my memory and also I'm therefore applying it in my life?
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–1:13
2
What happened when Manoush experienced an unexpected internet outage and why did it feel like a blessing?
1:13–3:49
3
How do hosts introduce the episode and frame the problem of constant screen exposure?
3:49–14:19
4
How is 'information overload' defined and what historical term describes it?
14:19–22:41
5
What physical and cognitive signs indicate you might be experiencing information overload?
22:41–26:27