Humanity: Collective Information Overload?

Photo by Roman Kraft on Unsplash

You’ve probably experienced one of those days that goes by in a blur. Busy working or doing fun stuff. You look at that person next to you and say “where did the day go?” One wonders if our foraging ancestors pondered this too? “How did we pick so many berries?”

We’ve been through a fair bit lately, us humans. A global pandemic, economic turmoils, rising conflicts. Weird politics all over the world. Massive social movements, unrest. Discomfort. Unease. It may seem like, well, we’re just not getting along.

So let’s step back a bit, maybe a lot. Go up to 80,000 feet or maybe space station level and look down on our planet. Look at things from a different perspective. What’s different today from yesterday?

Thing is, we’ve always been going through a lot. For well, ever since we’ve been around. Humans are a bit messy as a species. But we have progressed, even through times when we’ve not really got along well with one another.

So what’s different this time? Why does it all seem just, well, so much? Are we in a time, perhaps of collective cognitive overload? We may well be. Why?

First off, as a species, globally, we’ve just never been this connected before. Nor have we been able to putter about the planet like we can now. While transportation technology is faster, it is not…