When information overload started off, it created the same sorts of difficulties as sensory overload: Info overload was a psychological syndrome in which we lose our ability to act rationally…But that’s not how we think about information overload now, even though the amount of information far outstrips what Toffler feared would unhinge us…
We now think of information overload as a social issue, not a psychological one. We do not worry about losing our minds so much as not being able to find the information we need.
This is a remarkable story of adaptation. What we thought as a predicament that would destroy our ability to make rational decisions and might even drive us mad has now become simply our environment. It’s where we live. Rather than fleeing from the overload of information, our concern is that we’re not getting enough of it. We have adapted well.
Resignation straddling the glee of Shirky and the cynicism of Carr.