Too Much Information and Losing Your Voice in the Crowd
This morning I had a thought – something I wanted to write about, but I have no idea now what it was. I went online to look something up and got washed away in the rapids of the information stream. Reading one piece of information after another I crammed so much into my head that it’s all sort of squished together without enough space in between to make any kind of coherent connections.
Obviously I’m writing a blog, since you’re reading it (actually I have two blogs now) and possibly you also write a blog or maintain a website or do other writing online. Maybe that’s how you found me. Many many people are writing, sharing their opinions, sharing articles, posting links and ever-multiplying the information available on any topic you can imagine. There are even countless websites, blogs, citations and articles of varying sorts referring to dealing with “information overload,” based on the sheer volume of information available today.
I thought, “What can I do that will add value, without adding clutter?” Some of those pages on information overload mentioned people who just don’t have enough time to read and make sense of documents and articles, so I thought, “That’s something I’m good at — what if I could provide a service that takes documents, reads them, and then summarizes, explains, and even fact-checks them for accuracy?” Then, I googled.
Immediately I found that there are already numerous automated programs that summarize documents for people. While they may not explain anything, or fact-check or research further when contradictory information surfaces, still it seems that any idea I have and any potentially original thought already exists in some form and is available at the click of a webpage button.
It’s frustrating to me. I want to organize and make sense of all this information, all these fascinating things that interest me, make it accessible and share my thoughts, but is it just creating more clutter for people to sift through?
I was writing this in a notebook rather than my computer to get away from all the information that already exists and be alone with my own thoughts, when I find a page of notes on something else I wanted to write about. The topic is egoism in writing, and there are some great quotes by George Orwell, Ernest Hemingway, EB White and Joan Didion all garnered from pages at a fantastic webpage called Brain Pickings.
You have to have some ego to write a blog, because you’re saying that you have something to contribute; your thoughts are important enough to share — you have something to say. But when there is such a clamor of voices all saying something, and every one thinking they should be heard, at what point does it become pure confusion and just more noise?
I usually love that there is so much information at my fingertips. I find so many interesting things to read online, and I gorge myself sick on them; so much so that I’m often left with nothing to say myself. All these other thoughts, interesting new ideas, and cool things to think about are occupying my head. I link to some of them, and often think that I’ll write something later. But when later comes there is yet another feast of information in front of me. There’s so much to read and take in that processing and writing falls by the wayside, and with everything already available my voice doesn’t seem so important.
But there’s an idea I routinely come across in my reading and it makes sense. It’s an idea of finding a tribe — a group of people with whom your ideas resonate. These might be people who some call “kindred spirits” or maybe people who just get what you want to do and can help or listen. And sometimes they’re just the people who at that point in time want or need to hear what you have to say. They’re people whose goals or values align with yours in some way, and may help you learn or grow.
So, instead of a massive crowd of voices all drowning each other out, clusters (tribes) begin to form of people with similar interests, ideas or values.
That giant stream of information is still there, and can still drown you if you get caught in its currents. You can’t take it all in, and you can’t tame it or redirect its flow, but you can find those who are interested in seeing the river through your eyes, who want to hear how you’ve filtered the parts that most interest you. So, you find that tribe and share with them.
Maybe what I write, and what you write (if you do) doesn’t just add more noise and clutter even when it seems like that’s all it can do. Maybe it reaches specific people who are looking in all the voices for your voice (or my voice) in particular. Maybe there’s a set of people looking exactly for the insight or ideas that only you can give, and will bookmark or read what you say as eagerly as you do many others. Maybe every voice is important, at least to some others. I’d like to believe so anyway.
Seven Billion 