MITICH
TMI – Too Much Information - involves too many details of a personal, intimate, or taboo nature; and I've experienced far more TMI situations recently than etiquette should allow. However, I have also encountered something far more devastating than TMI. I call it MITICH - More Information Than I Can Handle. Now this is not the same thing as Alvin Toffler's IO - Information Overload - or the more recently coined IOS - Information Overload Syndrome. So, if you haven't yet reached you ISL - Information Saturation Level – please read on.
The constant barrage of information coming from the media is overwhelming. Radios, televisions, and telephones are constant companions; and we frequently check out multiple internet sources hourly, if not more often. Too much information makes it difficult to sort out what we need to know in order to take a stand or complete a series of actions. This information overload slows down our ability to think and can render us helpless to do what needs to be done.
Although I don't own a television or listen to my radio 24/7, I do read books, watch films, attend lectures, and use the internet. Like most folks with an insatiable curiosity, I become mesmerized by all this interesting information. Since I haven’t yet found a source for new RAM for the cranium, however, my central processor often freezes up from information overload.
I've tried to dump some of the information, but I don't have as much control over my brain cells as I'd like to believe. My brain cannot be selectively erased the way a computer hard drive can. So, at some point I find that I've reached MITICH - More Information Than I Can Handle. At this stage I just become apathetic. I don't want another single piece of information to enter my brain. I just want to sit alone in a quiet room with low levels of light and vegetate. In short, I want the world to go away.
So, if you pass me on the street and notice that my only reaction to your attempts to engage me is a glassy stare, don't be offended. It's just MITICH.
- Are you mesmerized by interesting or titillating information?
- How many information sources do you engage regularly?
- Do you ever experience IO or MITICH?
- What can you do to avoid paralysis and apathy?