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Information Overload Predicted Problem of the Year for 2008

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the nagging-inboxes dept.

Wired is reporting that information overload is being predicted by some analysts as the problem of the year for 2008. "'It's too much information. It's too many interruptions. It's too much lost time,' Basex chief analyst Jonathan Spira declared. 'It's always too much of a good thing.' Information overload isn't exactly new, but Spira said the problem has grown as technology increases societal expectations for instantaneous response. And more information available, he said, also means more time wasted looking for the right information, whether in an old e-mail or through a search engine."

7 of 146 comments (clear)

  1. you should welcome it. by User+956 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Information Overload Predicted Problem of the Year for 2008

    Correction: Information Overlord Predicted Problem of the Year for 2008.

    --
    The theory of relativity doesn't work right in Arkansas.
    1. Re:you should welcome it. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

      Correction: Information Overlord Predicted Problem of the Year for 2008.

      Correction to the correction: Information Overlord Overload Predicted Problem of the Year for 2008.

      I've been saying for years that we need to stop spawning more overlords, but would you people listen? Of course not.

  2. I for one... by Daltin · · Score: 3, Funny

    welcome our new information overlord. Wait, I read that wrong.

  3. Evolution... by fahrbot-bot · · Score: 3, Funny
    But, before the (alleged) explosion, ineffective workers had minesweeper and solitaire. Before that they had a water cooler and last night's shows to talk about. Before that it was real solitaire with real cards.

    Now it's /.

    --
    It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
  4. New Headline by hardburn · · Score: 4, Funny

    Wired Editor Attempts to Fill Whitespace

    Fixed it for you.

    --
    Not a typewriter
  5. Information overload, man! by BitwizeGHC · · Score: 3, Funny

    Johnny Mnemonic: Yeah, the Black Shakes. What causes it?
    Spider: What causes it?
    [points to various pieces of equipment throughout the room]
    Spider: This causes it! This causes it! This causes it! Information overload! All the electronics around you poisoning the airwaves. Technological fucking civilization. But we still have all this shit, because we can't live without it. Let me do my work.

    --
    N4st0r, trixx0r h0bb1tz0rz! Th3y st0l3 0ur pr3c10uzz!
  6. chicken nuggets in 30s or less by epine · · Score: 3, Funny

    What a bunch of pussies. We all know that a quick answer isn't necessarily a good answer, but maybe only 10% of us have the balls to stick to our guns, and half of us are at risk of winding up on the unemployment line, because a defective "fast food" culture has gained ascendancy in office politics, much like McDonald's in the 1970s. Only later did the masses decide that burger stamped from 1000 different bulls (to paraphrase "Supersize Me") is not good for the constitution (either personal or corporate). I was only twelve when I first tasted a green Shamrock shake, and even then my palate was sophisticated enough to conclude that petrochemicals (to give those flavour additives the benefit of the doubt) were unfit for human consumption.

    That's the present state of corporate email and IM culture: fast is good. Fast is actually crap, unless you are careful where you eat, but it will take another decade or so for backlash to recruit the unwashed. The average email response received in under 15 minutes is deep fried in hydrogenated soybean oil to a crispy golden colour. Yum, yum. Eat up and regurg, if you wish to see Santa arrive with your xmas bonus arrive in your neck of the cubical farm.

    "The power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism by those who haven't got it."

    -- George Bernard Shaw