Information Obesity

Is there something like too much of information? Is it possible that too much information in your head can stay in your head like too much fat, with you not excercising the information much to consume it ? Is it possible that this fat information comes in way of normal functioning of brain ? Is this type of obesity a new phenomenon or has it been there earlier ? These are some things that I would like to address.

First of all, I would say that this idea did not come out of nowhere. I am experiencing some such thing. I find I read (intake) too much of information, but I couldn’t recollect it when required on time. The information is also not ‘deleted’. It is simply lost. I know it is there somewhere in the head, as I could recollect it in other context. I do not know why and how this is happening, but I can surely make some guesses.

Fast food Information

The first thing contributing to too much information is its easy and instant availibility. Unlike the time spent in accessing, opening and reading books, or hearing information in others in a slow pace, we are presented with quick information on internet/tv/radio by means such as google/wikipedia/blogs/soap operas/news/discovery channels and such. Easy availibility is the reason for easy intake.

Low Nutrition value

Just like fast food, the easy information also has low nutrition value. What I mean here is that the information doesn’t come in a large enough digestable portion that our mind will be triggered to digest it. The information is in the form of small anecdotes. Just like we forget most of the jokes and anecdotes we hear and are unable to recollect them when we want them so badly, this type of easy information is stored but not wired well with other information to be able to recollect quickly. Since it is not digested (indexed properly) it lies in the brain just like memory leaks in a computer program.

Information Addiction

Information addiction is a serious problem. Much more serious if we think in terms of information obesity. How many times have I (or you) felt that I couldn’t control myself from further reading the related links on a wikipedia article. How many times have I felt uncontrollable urge to watch the tv serials one after another**. How many times I couldn’t stop reading a novel (though I will declare I must have read only 1/2 novels once in 2/3 years, the last being The Da Vinci Code.) I am sure you must have experienced such uncontrollable urges while getting some information. Shouldn’t we call this information addication ?

Obsesive Compulsive Brain waves.

If there could be information addition, why can’t there be uncontrollable brain waves ? This is what happens to me while I am not doing anything else (like driving). This is whats happening to me right now. The problem with these brain waves is that they are lost just the way fast food information is lost without proper digestion. A better way not to loose these brainwaves is to write them down, and that’s what I am doing now. (Writing the information down is itself a brain wave, and It is possible that I would loose this in a short while) So just remind me if you don’t see enough blogs after this blog

** I am starting to believe that tv serials havn’t got their name because they have a story serially split on every day, but rather because many such programs appear one after another ’serially’ on a given day. I remember, once on some thanksgiving or chirstmas day MTV was airing back-to-back episodes of MTV Punked and I watched them all day from morning to night