Modern life causes brain overload

 
One of the interesting things about being bipolar for me is a reluctance to assume that my experience of any little thing in the world is widely shared. I know it's possible, but it's not my my default.

So when I saw this study on line one night, I was more than curious. I've felt overwhelmed by information most of my life, and I still marvel at the way so many people seem able to move through this world with an ease, a comfort level that has always eluded me.

My most common response to the feeling of information overload is usually to withdraw- go offline, unplug the phone, go for a walk, go to sleep, what-have-you... 

I try to calm down and pull myself back together, and get to whatever as soon as I can...sometimes an hour later, sometimes longer later. Other people react to my reaction with anything from annoyance to anger to dismissal, and go on to the next person on their list.

... and despite my resolve not to project my reactions on to other people, there is a part of me that thinks bipolar people are sometimes similar to the tunnel canaries, used by miners in days gone by to detect unhealthy changes in their environment.

Here are a couple of things that gave me pause....

People are bombarded with the equivalent of 34 gigabytes of information a day. Through email, the internet, television and other media, people are deluged with around 100,000 words a day – equivalent to 23 words per second, researchers claim.

“They are so busy processing information from all directions they are losing the tendency to think and to feel.

"Much of what they are exposed to is superficial. People are sacrificing depth and feeling and becoming cut off and disconnected from other people.”

Part of why it struck me, I think, is because this really reflects my own experience of people in our digital age.

Something to think about...

 

or not, I guess.

-30-

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