Infobesity
The previous blog: “The data revolution” explains the main contributions of each industrial revolution. However, given industrial revolution represented profound changes and transformations in our society (which were not always positive). The center of life left the agricultural communities and moved to the factories, people left the countryside and came to the cities with the introduction of mechanical production. Electricity and mass production systems changed the way people lived and worked. And, more recently, the digital revolution caused disruptions in all industries through digital transformation — and the way people lived, worked, and communicated underwent major changes again.
Data is generated on ad clicks, social media likes, shares, travel, transactions, streaming content, and more. And when you put data in everyone’s hands, you can transform the way you think about business. This blog will explain one of the biggest risks we face in the data age: infobesity or also called information overload.
The eighth edition of Data Never Sleeps created by DOMO shows how much data is generated in each minute of each day with some of the most popular platforms and companies in 2020.
The great detective Sherlock Holmes once said that the human brain, at birth, is like an empty attic, which we then slowly fill with objects of our choice. Could it be that the Internet is making us fill our attic with useless junk objects that leave little space for the really important things?
In the modern age, it is almost impossible to be a web user without consuming random episodes of rather useless information that serves no purpose other than to further confuse our brain. Furthermore, much of this information is often of low quality and little authenticity. This has created an environment in which we are constantly exposed to a huge flood of questionable information, to the point that it often paralyzes us and renders us incapable of making wise and thoughtful decisions. Google the simplest problem and about a million different solutions in a fraction of a second.
Which ones are authentic, not taken?
What should you do?
Should I do this or that?
Is it okay to text your partner after midnight or will it seem too clingy?
The internet has answers to all questions, and sometimes it is these very solutions that delay action. We are so busy consuming useless information that we never actually move to use any of that accumulated knowledge for any practical purpose. Browsing the Internet for random facts and figures has become a hobby like any other.
The new age nickname “Infobesity” defines a condition in which the great flood of information constantly pouring into our poor limited brains causes them to stop working efficiently, slowing our progress and diminishing our well-being. It is a fusion of the two terms “information” and “obesity” (the condition of being unhealthy overweight). It suggests that just as we can eat too many cupcakes and consume unhealthy calories, similarly we can read too many Wikipedia articles or watch more videos of cute kittens to be healthy for our brains.
