Drowning in a Sea of Information

We are buried beneath the weight of information, which is being confused with knowledge; quantity is being confused with abundance and wealth with happiness.
--Tom Waits
 
 
I am drowning in constant information I don’t need and certainly didn’t ask for.  I know what to do; I need to swim away from the non-stop barrage of information, namely the news and social media.  No one needs to be as well-informed as the  media tells you.  I can safely say that we could check the news of the outside world no more than once a week and we still wouldn’t miss anything.

The media that feeds the people information constantly is complicit in the collective loss of our attention span. They’re not the only ones. The government is controlling what they want us to see and hear daily. I don’t think it’s that much of a leap to say a new branch of Trump’s regime with be a Department of Disinformation. You know, like Orwell's Ministry of Truth.

So, what do I plan to do? Unplug, at least to a degree.  Instead of checking out the usual websites, like Crooks and Liars or Democratic Underground, I will switch them out for reading a book or two.  I have at least 500 books surrounding me in the studio, all silently begging for my attention.  So, that’s my goal: endeavoring to read as many books as I can. In turn, I will move away from any social media, including Bluesky, along with the aforementioned political websites.  At least for now.

I know I can do it if I try.  I gave up Twitter three years ago, Facebook at least two. I don’t miss either of them.

A media fast, if you will. I feel the trick is to take small steps in this regard. For instance, go three days without looking at social media.  When I feel the urge to open my laptop, I will open a book instead.  Once I get through three days, that will turn into four days, then five days. Then a week, and so on.  Maybe I will be able to regain my attention span and reduce my world-weariness and anxiety.

In this same line of thinking, I am going to try to hone my almost non-existent book review skills, of which I (hopefully) will post here.