📗 Understand
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2 déc. 2024
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6 min read
Here are some raw numbers to get you into today’s topic: 720,000 hours of videos are published on YouTube every day —fyi It would take 82 years to watch them all. 109,480 new books were printed in France in 2021, 34 million TikTok videos are published every day and 1,200 advertising messages are seen daily by each person. Phew! This is a LOT.
📜 A Brief History of Information
Etymologically, the word “information” comes from the Latin formare, which means to shape or form. Information is what gives shape to the mind and our perception of the world.
From the earliest days of Homo sapiens, three forms of communication and information exchange can be perceived:
Language
The exchange of physical objects or immaterial concepts (ideas, beliefs)
Material supports (images, signs, writing…)
For 99.99% of its existence on Earth, humans evolved in an environment very poor in information. As our societies became more structured, information exchanges multiplied and became more complex. Prehistory, writing, printing, journalism…
I invite you to read the INA series “From the Neolithic to the Digital Age: A History of Information” if you want to delve deeper into the subject.
Seneca, a visionary, already said 2,000 years ago:
“What do these thousands of books, these countless libraries, matter to me, when to read their titles would take the whole life of their owners? This multiplicity of books is more of a burden than nourishment for the mind; it is better to stick to a few authors than to scatter one’s capricious attention over a hundred works.”
The idea is clear: that of information overload.
Of course, the information paradigm completely changed at the end of the 20th century, with the advent of new technologies.
It is now abundant (🧀).
It is ultra-accessible.
I came across a staggering fact during my research:
The amount of information created in just 2 days today equals that produced from the dawn of humanity to 2003. Mind-blowing. Moreover, almost all information is at our fingertips, especially since smartphones have become an extension of ourselves.
Our dear screens constitute the densest information platforms. It is through them that we receive most of our information today.
🧠 The Attention Economy and Brain Flaws
Sébastien Bohler, in The Human Bug, discusses the role of a small area at the base of the brain called the striatum.
This part of the brain rewards certain behaviors advantageous for our survival with a release of dopamine, triggering our motivation to persist in those behaviors.
Among them:
The quest for information: essential in times when survival in a hostile environment depended, in part, on the ability to gather information about one’s surroundings.
The quest for minimal effort: for millions of years, those who managed to minimize their energy expenditure had a better chance of survival than their neighbors. The brain seeks the best effort-to-benefit ratio.
You can see that the attention economy diligently exploits these two human inclinations to capture as much time and attention as possible.
The result: we have access to a 24/7 digital buffet. Without anyone pointing out the healthy options, and without imposing limits on the quantity we consume.
Beware of indigestion. Because tech giants push us to take endless seconds, and there’s no feeling of satiety.
♾️ The Great Paradox of the Digital Age
Access to information has never been easier, but the quest for good and relevant information seems increasingly difficult.
We’ve opened the floodgates, and the water is hard to filter.
© Organisology
It’s a well-known secret: the algorithms of platforms prefer the viral potential of content over truth and depth. It’s a race for the most sensational, divisive, and instantaneous information. The kind that will grab your attention.
As mentioned earlier, the brain indeed wants to collect as much information as possible with the least effort. So it’s no surprise that tech platforms and media tend to push this type of content.
This mechanism leads to several effects (which I’m sure you’ve observed):
The proliferation of “junk information” sessions: anecdotal information consumed in succession. They are flavorless, and you often can’t even remember their content five minutes later.
The lack of hierarchy in information: a major geopolitical development has the same value as a scoop about an influencer.
Understanding a complex problem deeply has thus become difficult and even a bit tedious for the brain, which is accustomed to immediacy. This is a very harmful dynamic.
By the way, a study by the Jean Jaurès Foundation in September 2022 showed that 53% of French people suffer from “information fatigue.”
This perpetual over-stimulation mentally exhausts us daily: it fragments attention, increases anxiety, and generates a mental fog that prevents us from taking advantage of interesting information.
🥦 The Importance of Controlling Your Information Nutrition
So yes, info-obesity is the direction of history, and it doesn’t seem to be stopping anytime soon. It is also the direction of history to learn to master ourselves in the face of this unending flow.
Observation #1: You have no influence over the amount of information generated in the world.
Observation #2: You have the ability to modify the flow of information that reaches you.
As Dan Koe points out:
“The important thing is to maximize engagement with information that leads us toward value creation and not distraction.”
The first step is to rise above it and ask a fundamental question: “What do I want to do with this information?”
This question brings intention to the forefront and clarifies what matters most to you.
The ideal is to reach a consumption pattern tailored to your personality, curiosities, and commitments. I explore a lot of different methods; it’s up to you to pick what interests you to test from this list (and yes, I like the analogy with nutrition):
🥬 The Diet
Audit the apps you have, the accounts you follow (on all social media), and sort through what is important and what is secondary. You’ll see, it’s very satisfying.
🍽️ Intermittent Fasting
Set specific time slots to check social media or news. Lunchtime, for example. You can use an app blocker like Jomo, available for free on iPhone, iPad and Mac. Very simple to use it offers more than 20 different ready-to-use blocking rules.
🍭 Avoid Processed Foods
Favor deeper, sourced information (books, newsletters, original documents) over very superficial news.
🍫 Limit Snacking
Personally, I use an “anti-flow” method, meaning I avoid anything that’s discovery mode (YouTube Shorts, Instagram Reels…). I recommend it!
🕐 Allow Time for Digestion
Take some notes on what you just watched/learned. Brain dumps are super useful for structuring ideas and retaining information. Again, you can use the app blocker Jomo. Schedule some Sessions to block some apps on specific time slots, and let your brain digest!
Being able to focus on relevant information and give it the attention it deserves is a true superpower in the 21st century. The journey is long but beautiful.
