Information Deprivation
Information Deprivation
In an age of information overload, I believe you are probably deprived of information. You’ll see exactly what I mean in a second. The word information comes from two words.Inform which is, of course, self-explanatory and then the second part –ation which is asking the reader to take action. So information basically means you are informed and then asked to take action on the information. Interesting in a world obsessed with giving us information that is barely useable, never mind process-able. Let me try and explain.A man named Steve wakes in the morning to begin his day. He starts his day with the radio switched on. The radio informs Steve of all kinds of so-called informative material. Mostly his brain barely registers any comments or information being passed on to him. His brain has learnt to cope with this kind of torrent and overload. Next he checks his email. Spam, spam and more spam. People are trying to sell him stuff or tempt him or persuade him into something, somewhere, sometime. Steve leaves his PC barely remembering any emails that passed through his inbox despite the fact they are packed with more information. On Steve’s drive to work, he sees road signs created to sell him stuff. He sees shop windows with sales messages. He sees magazine splashed with non entity celebrities that have become famous for nothing.In fact when Steve gets to his office for work the biggest conversation piece is how this 21st century celebrity is in the news again for doing nothing in particular apart from changing her hair. She dominates the conversation for the whole of the working day in the office intermingled with talk of another nameless non entity famous only for having huge silicone implants on display as often as possible! Steve’s day is packed with so many informative messages he no longer see, hears or registers any of them in his mind! 12 hours later, Steve eventually ends his day as it began … with information of sorts being aimed at him from Radio, TV, the web and of course another pile of junk mail sitting silently on his doormat when he walks into his house.So … Today Steve has had a day very much similar to all of the other 364 days in the year being bombarded with information that basically for the most part is totally useless. Steve is ordinary. Steve will always be ordinary. Because … Inside, part of Steve has been killed by information. Part of Steve has been killed by the media. Part of Steve, a very big part of Steve has been almost vaporized by a mass of nothingness that has sent his heart, mind and soul to sleep.You could suggest something to him and he would respond saying “what a great idea” but on his way from you… he would move on to the next thing. You could show him something and again he would respond and say “how amazing” and yet again move on to the next thing. And sadly that would go on and on and on and on and on. You see Steve has a very 21st century disease. Information Deprivation And you know what? It’s possible you have it also. Can I share the symptoms with you?
The need for constant audio or visual stimulation. iPods, Psp or any other kind of electronic stimulation.
The inability to spend any quiet time on your own and actually allow your brain to process information
You no longer think about anything in any depth like ... why does that do that or how does that do that or where do things really come from or more.
The urge to know about pointless celebrity lives and what they are doing next or any other mindless gossip that will never affect your life in a million trillion years!
Reading trash magazines on buses, trains, planes and anywhere you can and rejecting anything of depth, substance and hope!
Sound familiar? Did you realize a recent survey showed most people now spend TWO hours a day just checking email and another THREE hours surfing the web looking at junk during the day? What does that tell you about the state of people in 2008? It tells us we are under a spell of nothingness most of the time. We are almost dependant on this so named ‘information’ although 99.9% of the time it will have a negative effect on us. I know it’s hard to accept but does some of the above sound like you? Does it feel like you might be in that trap? IF IT IS YOU … It will eventually do one of two things.
Destroy you.
Destroy you business
Or there is a 3<sup>rd</sup> thing it’s this. Information deprivation will hold you in a strangle-hold so you cannot move one step forward, one step back or one to the left or one to the right. It’ll strangle the life out of you so you life becomes almost on hold while you become totally detached from reality due to the constant barrage if so named ‘information’ I have something to share with you. A library packed to the top with information is really just a set of tools.Let's be honest if we buy a box of tools do we use all of them? The answer is no … we use them as we need them. That’s how you should treat information … use and gather as required. This way you’ll avoid the deprivation of information caused by the constant overload. This word is obsessed with filling your brain with totally useless information.You want to succeed? Get rid of useless information. You want your business to do well? Get rid of useless information. You want your life to change? Get rid of useless information.I hope this helps you.Alan Forrest Smith
