When I’m not trying to figure out how we can place allieds into the best nursing jobs in the USA – I have a tendency to be philosophical. This blog entry is one such occurrence.
We are, as a society, suffering from information overload. There are precious few places to avoid it. The obsession for most of us grows into an addiction – we just can’t live without it.
Maybe we can forget for just a moment about things like global financial meltdowns – Presidential politics – Sarah Palin’s Moose hunting skills and where Brad and Angelina are planning to sell the placenta from their most recent addition (ebay I hear).
But then again, maybe not.
The Problem
As we move from our workplaces to our homes and every place in between, we are inundated. Those of us sitting at a computer every day open our browsers in the morning and we’re off to the races.
We get barraged with information about the state of the nation, oil prices and Britney Spears mental health. If we go out for lunch – many restaurants oblige us by having multiple televisions -broadcasting events of the day. Then we move to our cars and turn on the radio so that we don’t miss anything in the 20 minute drive home. If we stop off at a grocery store, we find magazines at the checkout and even in store televisions which feed our information “jones”. Then we go home and surf through 300 channels while simultaneously connected via laptop to rehash the day’s events.
And while I groan about much of what I see daily – I have to admit that I have been a willing participant in its creation. Those media folks are great statisticians and they know what we all want. That’s the biggest irony in all of this. We loathe what we obsess about (or so we say).
A Call to Action
I heard someone say about 30 years ago, “If you want to have a better life, shoot your television.” In this information age, that should be expanded to say, “shoot your television, your computer and your PDA”. I am reminded of an old cartoon which depicted a man walking to his cubicle in the morning. As he was approaching his PC, the PC was shown to be thinking: “ahhh…here comes my slave”. I am that man.
Its time for emancipation.
I obviously can’t fix the whole information obsession culture. The only thing I can control is my participation in it. So here is what I plan to do:
1) Use Google as my browser homepage, so I don’t get all the story “hooks” thrown at me when I open my browser.
2) Avoid “E!” Entertainment television
3) Cancel my wife’s subscription to People Magazine (really, its hers)
4) Listen exclusively to sports radio in the car (wait, I do that already)
5) Opt out of all my info-tainment emails
6) Go outside on occasion.
Footnote: Brad and Angelina aren’t really selling the placenta on ebay. I made that up, plus it would be trashy.
I believe they’re actually auctioning it at Sotheby’s.
Now go outside!
