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Dealing with information overload on the Internet.

XX55XXXX55XX Registered User regular
edited December 2011 in Debate and/or Discourse
On an average day, I will visit at least 30 websites, read at least several dozen articles/blog posts, watch about a dozen videos on Youtube, and read/post on at least a 18 message boards.

This is killing my brain. You know, life on the Internet used to be much slower for me. Now, there is so much news and stuff out there that I am having difficulty keeping track of it all. Even though I have limited my consumption of media to just four categories: general news/politics (BBC, Al Jazeera), video games (message boards, GameSpot, Kotaku, The Escapist. Penny Arcade), My Little Pony (Equestria Daily, three MLP message boards), and technology (Anandtech, Engadget, Ars Technica, MacRumors, Neowin), there is an overwhelming flood of stuff to read, watch, debate about, and see every single day.

Before Youtube and Web 2.0 took over, it was much easier to digest all of this stuff. Now, there is so much noise out there that I don't feel bothered to keep track of it anymore. And I've ignored Facebook and Twitter a long time ago, since most of that stuff is junk anyways.

How do you guys deal with information overload? I wish I could grow some more synapses in my brain and make my days twice as long, but that isn't possible. Guess I might need to cut out some more stuff that isn't relevant to my life.

XX55XX on

Posts

  • mrt144mrt144 King of the Numbernames Registered User regular
    I turn off the computer and go do things with my body. But it is absolutely hard to walk away.

  • XX55XXXX55XX Registered User regular
    mrt144 wrote:
    I turn off the computer and go do things with my body. But it is absolutely hard to walk away.

    That is the most simple solution. But, you can only feel compelled to hear the noise (and I block out most of it, but there is still so much to hear/look at!)

    Sometimes, I wish the Internet was never invented. My parents remark often at how much slower their lives were. If everyone else is willing to give it up, I'm game.

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  • mrt144mrt144 King of the Numbernames Registered User regular
    Finding relevancy and pruning selectively is very important and unfortunately the tools to intuitively do that aren't there yet.

  • XX55XXXX55XX Registered User regular
    mrt144 wrote:
    Finding relevancy and pruning selectively is very important and unfortunately the tools to intuitively do that aren't there yet.

    Well, good thing is, 90% of the web is junk.

    Unfortunately, there is still 10% of stuff out there worth reading/watching, and it's still too much. For example, I read the Economist, Slate, The New York Times, Wired... Just so much stuff...

  • Eat it You Nasty Pig.Eat it You Nasty Pig. tell homeland security 'we are the bomb'Registered User regular
    I am willing to bet that most of those sources are giving you substantially similar information anyway; just cut down somewhat.

    Like, the third MLP-related forum is probably not adding much new information compared to the first two (or one.) If you're already posting on PA, kotaku and the escapist, what's gamespot really doing for you? etc.

    hold your head high soldier, it ain't over yet
    that's why we call it the struggle, you're supposed to sweat
  • AJC delle Marche esqAJC delle Marche esq __BANNED USERS regular
    edited December 2011
    I find myself with the opposite problem. I've been going to increasingly fewer sites as the years go on. I check out a newspaper site while at work, check YouTube if any of my three subscribed people uploaded anything decent, go to a forum that only gets about one new post a day, go to the Comics Curmudgeon, come to Penny Arcade sporadically and check out porn when I feel so inclined. That's about it. Oh, I also check email on the off chance that a former girlfriend or my mother sent me some boring crap.

    I never got on Facebook or any of that shit either. I also don't play games on the internet anymore.

    Television is the same. I don't watch it much anymore. More and more, I sit in a darkness, doing nothing, with a stew of tedium, melancholy and anxiety. It's like being born but born inside a dark cloud where there's no hope of sunshine.

    AJC delle Marche esq on
  • Eat it You Nasty Pig.Eat it You Nasty Pig. tell homeland security 'we are the bomb'Registered User regular
    google news is also a good way to condense your news/tech reading into one easily-refreshable site

    hold your head high soldier, it ain't over yet
    that's why we call it the struggle, you're supposed to sweat
  • XX55XXXX55XX Registered User regular
    I am willing to bet that most of those sources are giving you substantially similar information anyway; just cut down somewhat.

    Like, the third MLP-related forum is probably not adding much new information compared to the first two (or one.) If you're already posting on PA, kotaku and the escapist, what's gamespot really doing for you? etc.

    I think you're right. I used to post on just one MLP message board and left it at that, but that number expanded to three because I would go on those two other boards every Saturday to discuss/debate the newest episode.

    As for news, I discover that most of the stuff I am reading on the BBC doesn't relate much to the geo-political matters that I care about the most, so perhaps just Al Jazeera will be fine.

    As for computer hardware, I guess I can just cut it down to just Anandtech (since computer hardware reviews are so similar, for example, everyone said the same thing about Bulldozer).

  • [Tycho?][Tycho?] As elusive as doubt Registered User regular
    I just have to realize when I'm hitting the refresh button compulsively, or going in a cycle between a few sites that aren't changing. Then it is time to disengage, and read a book or something.

    I lived in a house for two years that purposely had no internet. It was good. I went to my university library or public libraries or friends houses. I still got ~2 hours of internet a day, and really that was more than enough 90% of the time. I'm... honestly not sure what I did with the rest of my time, but the compulsive stuff was rooted out. I'd like to return to that, though I don't see any easy way of doing so.

    mvaYcgc.jpg
  • PodlyPodly you unzipped me! it's all coming back! i don't like it!Registered User regular
    How are you claiming information overload when you only visit three My Little Pony boards?

    follow my music twitter soundcloud tumblr
    9pr1GIh.jpg?1
  • FeralFeral MEMETICHARIZARD interior crocodile alligator ⇔ ǝɹʇɐǝɥʇ ǝᴉʌoɯ ʇǝloɹʌǝɥɔ ɐ ǝʌᴉɹp ᴉRegistered User regular
    Try an RSS reader?

    every person who doesn't like an acquired taste always seems to think everyone who likes it is faking it. it should be an official fallacy.

    the "no true scotch man" fallacy.
  • Pi-r8Pi-r8 Registered User regular
    Feral wrote:
    Try an RSS reader?

    Yeah, rss reader has helped me a lot.

  • LilnoobsLilnoobs Alpha Queue Registered User regular
    This D&D forum has been a godsend. I want to keep track of politics, but instead of visiting all the political places I'll just read some of the threads here in D&D where friendly gents have already compiled noteworthy sources.

  • ahavaahava Call me Ahava ~~She/Her~~ Move to New ZealandRegistered User regular
    Lilnoobs wrote:
    This D&D forum has been a godsend. I want to keep track of politics, but instead of visiting all the political places I'll just read some of the threads here in D&D where friendly gents have already compiled noteworthy sources.

    so much this. Of course, i read so many threads in this forum that it can become an all day thing (except on US weekends. because all of you have lives and that's not fair).

    and then I hit the msnbc.com home page, cycle through the headlines, and then go from there. I sit on facebook because, well all my family and friends are back in the states and sometimes it's fun to harass them by wishing them happy birthday a whole 18 hours early (especially the one who are just now turning 30. so much fun!)

    I will occasionally go and poke around on wikipedia if i find something of interest, but that's not often.

    basically, cut things down.

  • KamarKamar Registered User regular
    The PA forums fill a lot of my internet needs. I get all my news from D&D and people linking articles here (I watch Maddow, TDS, and occasionally the thing that comes on before Maddow, but D&D usually gets there first), find out about games and whatnot from the other subforums, discuss my writing in TWB, etc., etc.

    It's great.

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