Information Overload
Once upon a time, if you wanted the news, you had exactly three options:
1. the crinkly thing on your driveway,
2. the guy on TV at 6 p.m., or if you were really crazy you stayed up and watched the same thing at 10 pm right before Johnny Carson.
3. your neighbor, who’d already misheard both.
That was it.
You got your news in the morning or evening, and in between you had this magical thing called “a day.” During that day, you talked to actual humans. You argued, mulled things over, changed your mind, asked questions, and occasionally realized, “Oh, I might be wrong.”
Now? You wake up, glance at your phone, and before your feet hit the floor you’ve absorbed:
· A global crisis
· Three celebrity scandals
· Two conspiracy theories
· And a video of a raccoon using a vending machine
All before coffee.
From conversations to constant broadcast
We used to process information.
News came in doses; conversations stretched it out. You heard one version on the news, another at work, another at dinner, and somewhere in there your brain did this old‑fashioned thing called “thinking.”
Today, information doesn’t arrive in doses; it arrives like a firehose duct‑taped to your face.
Instead of slow, thoughtful back‑and‑forth, we get:
· Hot takes in 280 characters
· “Breaking news” that is somehow always breaking and rarely news
· Comment sections that prove not everyone should have a keyboard or computer
There’s no built‑in pause. No buffer. Just scroll → react → repost.
Taking it at face value (and then making it worse)
Because we’re overloaded, we don’t investigate; we accept.
We see a headline, assume it’s true, and then generously “help” by retelling it with:
· Slightly fuzzier details
· Extra drama
· A dash of “I’m pretty sure I heard…”
By the time the story gets to the fifth person, it’s gone from:
“Scientists studying weather patterns…”
to
“Scientists confirm the moon is angry and probably moving to Florida.”
We’re not just consumers; we’re amplifiers—often making the narrative noisier and less accurate each time it passes through us.
Then we added AI to the party
Just when our brains were already full, along comes AI:
“Want a summary?”
“Want ten opinions?”
“Want a 3‑page essay explaining this thing you only mildly care about?”
“What is…and list your internet sources so that I know its true!”
Instant. Polished. Always ready.
The upside: we can get answers in seconds.
The downside: we rarely stop to ask, “Wait… what do I actually think about this?” Our brains are on overload which leads to diminished critical thinking, burnout, poor mental health, less genuine relational connections, and a bunch of other stuff science will tell us in 20 years.
Instead of being participants in understanding—wrestling with ideas, asking questions, comparing perspectives—we risk becoming spectators sitting in the bleachers while information races past on the field.
So what do we do?
A few small rebellions against the overload:
· Slow one thing down. Before reposting, ask: “Do I actually know this is true?”
· Schedule a news window. Morning and/or evening, like the old days. The rest of the time? Live your life.
· Have one real conversation a day. With a person, IN PERSON. In sentences longer than a caption.
· Let questions breathe. Instead of “instant answer = done,” try “interesting… let me sit with that and think.”
Information isn’t the enemy; the speed and volume are.
The goal isn’t to know everything instantly. The goal is to know a few things well enough that we can think, question, and respond like human beings instead of auto‑forwarding machines. In fact, I don’t think we are supposed to know everything even though we have something internal that drives us towards more knowledge. It is what has made us great, but if we are really honest and look backwards (way back) we can see it is what caused our fall as well.
For those of you who believe in God and follow His word you only have to read a few pages into the bible and see our insatiable search for knowledge. Adam and Eve wanted more and went to a source of knowledge they were not allowed to go to. They ignored it, and the fall of man happened. In other words there were consequences that you and I still live in today. Not that we are cursed for getting the knowledge we have today, but I do believe it has consequences that we have to live with by not being able to process and critically think through the information that is coming at us. Not the same, but similar.
We want more knowledge and all the knowledge in the world is at our fingertips and takes seconds to access. We look at it on surface but never go deeper leaving us more shallow, more confused, and more apt to repeat mistakes of the past.
If we can reclaim even a little space to process, we might discover that wisdom doesn’t come from having the fastest answer—it comes from being willing to slow down long enough to find a better one.