I've been thinking about "information overload" lately, partly due to this post on Michael Stephens' Tame the Web blog (highly recommended, though I have some issues with his tone that I may get into at some point). He's actually talking about another blog post, from David Rothman's blog about medical librarianship.
Rothman says...
"I’m sincerely flabbergasted to hear a librarian (or any information professional) complain that there is “too much data” or “too many RSS feeds”.
“Web 2.0 doesn’t cause an information glut. What causes an information glut is being an information glutton, taking on more than anyone can reasonably manage. There aren’t too many RSS feeds. Rather, there are users who subscribe to too many RSS feeds. The solution isn’t for less data to exist, the solution is smarter, more selective use of the data. The tools that help us filter and manage the information that we care most about are continuing to improve in power and sophistication."
I know that I personally suffer from "information gluttony". I've got 142 feeds in my Bloglines account (that's an RSS feed aggregator). I’ve got…let’s see…254 bookmarks in del.icio.us, and I can’t even remember what half of them are, or if I need them. I have a bad habit of bookmarking something, or subscribing to a feed, or writing myself a note about something, and saying “oh I’ll get back to that later, when I have time”. Problem is, I either don’t have time or don’t use my time wisely.
I’m not ready to make a New Year’s resolution or anything, but I think it would be healthy for me to cut back on something, and give myself more time in other areas.
Have any of you discovered any good methods for dealing with information overload?
1 comment:
I was hoping for some great solutions to the problem of information overload. Oh well...
The juggling of all of these tools and content is so challenging. I have started to wonder if I should be using Twitter or mind meld with someone in high school.
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