#42) How to Survive Information Overload

Hello, and welcome back to "Always Be Better" with Mel Windham.

Today we're going to talk about an interesting problem plaguing this world: what I call "Information Overload." And we can start discussing ways to combat this.

First, I'd like you to join me back in time a few decades -- back to the 1980s. I was a geeky high-school student. The Internet was not yet widespread, and most people had never heard of it. Cell phones were expensive, and most people did not have them. Smartphones? Forget about it.

Back then, people had very slow access to information. We would have to rely on the news, cable, books, the library. As for politics and rumors, we had to actually go somewhere -- the barbershop, church, community events.

And our high school friends? Unless we stayed close to home, we rarely heard from them. It was even easy to forget what they looked like.

Compared to today, we lived in our own silos, and we were safe. We could believe whatever we wanted, because there was very little to challenge us. We could speak our minds and everyone would nod their heads. And this wasn't very long ago.

I remember the first time I was introduced to the Internet. It was the early 1990's, and I was taking a music researching class. Our Professor said, "Want to see something cool?" We gathered around the computer as he spent a few minutes downloading a picture. It was awesome!!

What it meant: information was at our fingertips. It didn't take long to start using everything it had to offer: email, search engines, and anything we ever wanted to know about. By the early 2000s we started seeing Blackberry's and smartphones, which meant we could carry the Internet with us everywhere. Around the same time, Facebook launched and changed social media like never before. It wasn't the first social media product, but it was the one that finally attracted -- practically everyone.

Not only did we have information, but we also had our high school friends back.

At first it was great -- catching up with old friends, sharing stories. But then something happened -- a phenomenon I'll talk about in several of these videos -- information overload. Not only do we have good information, relationships, and contacts, but we also have scammers, opportunists, politicians, and even foreign entities bombarding us with bad information, propaganda, and distracting diversions.

After spending decades in our own safe silos, we are now, for the very first time, able to see the whole world in all its glory, and in all of its rottenness. Plus, now we can even make fools of ourselves in front of our high school friends -- and sometimes the whole world if a tweet or video goes viral. We are no longer safe. And some people think ... we're not made to handle this much information. We're not built for this. And so, it may have exacerbated into our current situation where there is much distrust, hate, defensiveness, and division.

However, like to hope for the best. We are an intelligent species. I know it doesn't look so great right now, but ultimately, I think we are going to become collectively smarter, and it's going to be a very good thing. I think that one day we're going to learn how to interact with each other ... how to filter out good information from the bad ... how to have healthy relationships with ... well ... everyone. And it will turn into a collective confidence where we all believe we're headed in the right direction. Then our good behaviors will resonate, and reinforce further good behaviors, and take us all to the next level.

Carl Sagan alludes to this idea in the TV show COSMOS -- his 11th and 12th episodes, "The Persistence of Memory" and "Encyclopaedia Galactica." And I agree that we can get there ... or more importantly, we HAVE to. If we can't fix this now, we really are doomed.

But don't worry. You can join me to help push the world in the right direction ... get others to work together. As I may have mentioned before, this is one of the main impetuses behind this video series. How do we handle information overload? Well, I've already been laying the groundwork for us to achieve this.

For example, I've had several videos on our autopilot and how it can be used for brainwashing, which we'll soon learn how to handle. And several videos on the 7 Habits in which we've discussed how to interact with others, and getting our own life in order. I've already provided introductory lessons on basic logic, which we can use to determine good information from the bad. I'm also planning videos on bias, the media, social media, and other related topics. If you've been watching this series from the start -- we've already been waxing on and waxing off. And as we continue forward, we're going to eventually bring it all together.

I'm doing this, because I think it's going to work. If we become better people, we can help others to be better, and the collective cooperation will grow. We can then learn how to use all the information in the world to our advantage, and move toward mutually beneficial solutions.

So, stick around and we'll figure this out. Next week we'll talk about anger -- dagnabit! Little by little, we'll get there. Make sure to Like and Subscribe, and I'll keep producing these videos. Together, we can save the world.

Thank you for watching, and I'll see you next time on "Always Be Better."