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How to Handle Information Overload
An alternative to skimming, skipping, and "ruthless prioritizing."
Today's world is filled with terms like "knowledge economy" and "information society". The modern world is based around knowledge and information.
Information has always been valuable, but never before has it been so available. With the rise of the internet came the rise of free and easy to access information. Now, information on nearly every topic known to us has become readily and easily available through search engines like Google, Yahoo!, and MSN.
We have massive online databases of information on just about every topic in the world, and the thoroughness of this coverage of the world is increasing daily. Even a search of "information overload" in Google yields over 3 million results.
Talk about irony.
Even when it's inconceivable for there to be 3,240,000 separate ideas, observations, or definitions, there are 3,240,000 pages that focus on the term.
Even when there is information clearly available on a topic, people like to create pages and pages with the same information, just so that they can make sure a specific group of people will get the information.
For example: even though the blog on this website contains articles about memory, speed reading, and reading comprehension, it's not going to stop anybody from creating another website with the very same information. Creating several websites with the same information (or the same tools) ensures extra exposure of the topics.
However, not all of the pages on the internet agree with eachother.
Now that Blogging and Wikipedia are popular, people from all over the world can easily contribute to the growth of the internet, and they don't need any special skills or knowledge to do so.
It's become so easy to add content, in fact, that some researchers estimate that 7.3 million new pages are added every day.
Predictably, not all of the information is accurate. With so many people creating pages for the internet, you can't expect them all to know what they're talking about.
The more people you have writing about a topic, the more contradictions you'll find. Too many cooks spoil the broth.
The amount of information available is never necessarily an accurate reflection of the amount of useful information available...
To ensure that you get the answers you're looking for, the amount you read should depend on the amount of pages that are answering your question.
If there were just one source, and its accuracy was absolute, then you would only have to read a couple pages to find what you're looking for. But if there are 100 sources, or even 100 000 sources, then you might want to at least check 4 or 5 of them to make sure there is consistency.
So, when there are 3,240,000 sources, it can take a bit of work to ensure what you're reading is correct.
Many people generally create for themselves a small list of websites or newspapers that they use as their sources for information.
It may not be organized as a "list" per se, but once they find a few sources that seem to be accurate and dependable, they go straight to those sources whenever they're looking for related information.
For example, right now you may have a couple of websites bookmarked in your web browser, so that you can visit those sites easily and frequently.
And you might have a subscription to 1 or 2 newspapers, and you read those as well. You might even have 2 or 3 favourite writers - you know that you can pick up a book by one of them and you'll be satisfied by the content.
Regardless of whether your sources are in the form of internet websites, non-fiction books, newspapers, or magazines, if you were to write out the list of your "most-used resources", you would probably be surprised at how short it is.
That small list was only formed in order to counter a very specific problem: reading speed. By frequenting only a small amount of sources for information, you have made an unconscious decision to save time... and this is only because of a low reading speed.
Having a list of trustworthy sources that you can depend upon for information is a very good idea. I'm not disputing that.
But if the reading process were instantaneous, and comprehension was 100%, imagine how much you would read! You would only be restrained by how quickly you turn pages, or how quickly you click links.
Right now, when you have a look at a website or a newspaper, you probably browse through the headers and titles, and very carefully choose which few are worth investigating.
This situation is very heavily influenced by our reading speed.
It is a good idea to consider our information-gathering activities as exchanges of Time for Information.
The more time we spend, the more information we can get.
Reading is an extremely efficient information gathering activity.
Only in exceptional circumstances can another information-gathering activity trump reading as the most efficient exchange.
Consider this: if you wanted to learn how to build an airplane, what would you do? You have 3 options.
a) Ask around town. See if anyone nearby knows how to build an airplane.
b) Figure it out yourself. It can't be too hard!
c) Get some books on "how to build an airplane" and read them.
What do you think is the best option here? Let's consider these options as exchanges of Time for Information.
The first isn't a very good option, because although it doesn't take too much time, but it's unlikely that anyone would actually know how to build an airplane. You would be wasting time.
In the presence of books and free information, the second option also isn't a very good option. Although you may eventually figure it out, it would take a really long time.
The third option is of course the best. There are numerous books that have all the information you could possibly need about how to make airplanes. You could easily find a couple books, and find a couple tutorials on the internet, and very soon, you would be able to build your very own airplane.
This is a good example for many reasons. With the vast libraries, and sophisticated internet search engines that are available today, information on just about everything is readily available.
For every problem you have, there's a book with the solution. The problem isn't finding the book; it's finding the time to read it.
Even though reading a book that addresses a problem you have will most likely help you solve your problem, in many situations you just don't have enough time to read a book about it.
But if you had a problem with self-confidence, for example, and I gave you a big pile of books on "how to improve self-confidence," isn't it possible that a couple of ideas from one or two those books might make a difference?
Isn't it possible that valuable and effective solutions to many problems that you face in your life are already available in books?
The answer is indisputably YES!
The problem is that reading 5 books on a topic is way too time consuming - regardless of the value of the information. Because it just takes so long, the benefits of the book don't seem like they could make up for the time you would lose by reading it. So, you just end up not reading as many books.
This habit of being ultra-selective when reading applies to all kinds of text. We usually don't really have the time to read very much at all "in full". And with good reason! A lot of full-length pages on the internet are actually just a couple of points backed with tons of filler. Or maybe a big long essay to get you excited, followed by a "Pay $299 to Subscribe Now!!" on the bottom. So we're right to be selective with what we read.
But the thing is, if reading didn't take so long, everyone would read much more. Everyone would have a larger list of sources for information, and consequently everyone would be much more informed.
What we are facing here is known as "information overload". Information on nearly every topic is written down in books and on websites. All or nearly all of that information is readily available to those who look for it. Anyone can gain a huge advantage if they simply do some reading... But there is so much information, that it's too much handle.
If you were to compare the amount of articles you read in full to the amount of articles you scanned for interesting headlines, I'm sure you would find that the ratio would be disappointing - and unacceptable.
The inadequacy of this type of reading is especially highlighted when you consider this: wouldn't you admit that reading something in full is better than just scanning? Wouldn't you say that there's probably quite a lot that you missed just because there wasn't an important-looking headline above it? That importance radar that you use when scanning is not to be trusted.
It’s a real wake-up call to realize how much good stuff there is to read that we decide we just don’t have time for.
Well what if you really did take advantage of the information out there?
What if you knew how to scan properly, and you didn't have to limit your reading to short and simple things. What if you didn't only read the stuff that's highlighted, bold, in colourful boxes, or under a well-written headline? What if you had a better understanding of everything you read? Do you have any idea how much that could help you?
If you started reading faster and reading more, the possibilities are endless for what you could learn, and what it would mean for your life.
Imagine what it would be like to be able to read whatever you want without worrying about how long it will take you. Imagine how it would feel to read through 1 book every week - without having to dedicate a huge amount of time to reading.
Imagine halving the time you spend reading the newspaper, while staying just as informed on current events as before.
What I'm describing to you right now is the life of a speed reader.
Learning how to speed read will open up a whole new realm of possibilities.
Nearly everything you do will become a lot easier. Partly because of the time you would save by reading faster, and partly because of the things you would learn by reading more.
It's hard to explain how much you can actually read during the day. It's not unlikely that you may double or triple the amount you read, once you learn how to speed read.
You might say that speed reading can generate a new respect for knowledge and information.
People avoid books only because they take too long to read. Books are wonderfully useful - but only if the gains from the books are worth the time you put in to reading them. If you can lessen the time you spend reading, and get the same gains from the books, then books become even more useful, and become much more interesting to read.
This is why experienced readers tend to read more than inexperienced readers - the better you get at reading, the more useful reading becomes.
So, now that we have getter grounds for understanding the "problem" that is "information overload," we can begin to answer the question posed at the beginning of the article.
The main reason "information overload" is considered a problem is that consuming that information in a way that is useful takes too long.
The amount of information that comes to us is not going to decrease in any way. There will only be more and more information available as time goes on.
So instead of using ways to skip through the information, or selecting only those topics which are most necessary, why not tackle the problem head on?
In a general sense, the way to handle "information overload" is to simply equip yourself with tools and technologies that can help you consume that information.
Now, what is the most useful and most used way of consuming information? Reading. So, if you want to handle information as effectively as possible, it only makes sense to focus on mastering the skill of reading.
Many people, when faced with the problem of information overload, go in the opposite direction; they decrease the effectiveness of their reading, just to satisfy their short-term goal of saving some time. They fall into the habit of skimming or scanning material instead of actually reading.
This isn't a real solution. This is a very-short-term solution at best.
The real solution is to improve your reading skills overall. If you learn a high-level reading skill like speed reading, your information overload problems will disappear.
Don't skip, don't scan, don't skim.
Speed read.
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