It’s called information overload, brain fry, digital fatigue - It’s that feeling that your brain has “shut-down” and you can’t remember why you were headed to the kitchen or what you were supposed to be printing for the meeting starting in 2 minutes (which you most likely also forgot about until the email reminder!)
Our brains are busier than ever and while many of us find ourselves inundated with vast amounts of data daily, we are also required by our fast-paced society to make more rapid decisions. Trying to figure out what we need to know and what we can ignore is exhausting. There is such a host of information available to us that it becomes a chore to sieve through it all to find what interests us and applies to our lives. Whether we need or use it or not our brain is constantly viewing, processing and trying to retain information around us. We rush from one appointment to another while still trying to keep up with our children and parents, friends, careers, hobbies, and favourite TV shows.
So can you imagine only getting the right information that you want to see, no more sifting through irrelevant data to get to the facts and tips you’re looking for. This is particularly pertinent for news and lifestyle content. What if you don’t care about the latest developments in Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie’s divorce proceedings? Or who is in the starting line-up for the Springboks next game? Or what new controversial topic Donald Trump tweeted about? We are inundated with articles in various categories from politics to sport to entertainment both local and international, and while these may not interest us we are forced to go through them all in order to find the relevant information to us, our areas and interests.