How much is TMI?

Daniel Tammet essentially asks us the question in his article, "Can learning too much, too fast be harmful to human beings?" He uses examples of corporate efficiency, neuroscience and the technologically strange to make his case. And to some extent, I believe his point is valid- that we, as limited human beings, can be overexposed and overwhelmed by the vastness of our own Information Age.

However, I think the answer to the question he raises is most likely obvious to anyone that has spent any deal of time surfing Wikipedia as I sometimes find myself doing. I simply do not retain even a fraction of the information I am exposed to, but I remain a functional person. I am swayed further, though, by the research of a German scientist named Gerd Gigerenzer who has made a name for himself by proving just how simply our minds actually work, even in the presence of an overwhelming amount of information. His research as the Director of the Max Planck Institute of Human Development has shown that most human thought processes follow simple rules, called heuristics, even when challenged to solve complicated tasks.

Consider how baseball players catch a ball. It may seem that they would have to solve complex differential equations in their heads to predict the trajectory of the ball. In fact, players use a simple heuristic. ... The heuristic is to adjust the running speed so that the angle of gaze remains constant —that is, the angle between the eye and the ball. The player can ignore all the information necessary to compute the trajectory ... and just focus on one piece of information, the angle of gaze."

 

I believe that even though we are now exposed to the largest tsunami and resulting flood of information humanity has ever seen, we human beings will continue to follow very simple, but effective rules as our astrolabe. What simple rules do you navigate by? http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/gigerenzer03/gigerenzer_index.html 

I also strongly recommend Gerd's book Gut Feelings: The Intelligence of the Unconscious to those further interested. 

The Assimilation of the Offline Generation

Perhaps the question that the “Growing Up Online” documentary didn’t cover is how the availability and popularity of the Internet, and perhaps more so the social networking sites (OSN for short), are effecting the previous generation. Since the documentary came out in early 2008, I’ve noticed a proliferation of adults on Facebook.

Some I’m sure are there in order to keep track of their children, as called spying by those who are being “kept track of”. Some adults though are now becoming fully integrated into the world of online social networking. They are finding old friends and making new ones and even using the plethora of applications available to them on the site. The Borg like spread of OSN has gotten to point that an Australian court has allowed sending a message on Facebook to be considered a way of serving legally binding documents¹. Many companies are even going to Facebook and MySpace in order to research job applicants, and many of them are not liking what they find².  

Because of this generation’s interconnectedness with the Internet and technology as a whole, previous generations are being forced to learn things like what being “poked” means or how to type in texting jargon. Will the previous generations be able to keep up with this technology infused generation? How will that affect the “Online Generation”? Or will they simply, in the words of a fellow student’s Facebook status update, “realize that they will never understand Facebook”?

 

1)  see http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/techpolicy/2008-12-16-australia-facebook_N.htm

2) see http://www.zdnetasia.com/techjobs/career-resources/0,3800009355,62050688,00.htm

    And http://www.news-herald.com/articles/2009/02/06/news/nh453376.txt

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Do you think our various forms of technology are helping or hurting our human communication and interaction? For example, is it harmful that we'd rather watch a marathon of the show Friends than actually go out with our real life friends? Is it unhealthy that our emotion in a text or IM has been reduced to two symbols resembling a smile? : ) Or on the other hand, do you think things like tv, the internet and cell phones are simply broadening our horizon of communication?

I own a cell phone, computer, tv, and radio.  Though sometimes I feel like those things are vital tools, other days I feel as though I'm becoming more and more of a hermit, relying almost exclusively on these things for communication. What are your thoughts?