Information overload age?

"...in an information-rich world, the wealth of information means a dearth of something else: a scarcity of whatever it is that information consumes.

Hence a wealth of information creates a poverty of attention and a need to allocate that attention efficiently among the overabundance of information sources that might consume it“

I loved this definition that I chanced on; it is from a write up that defines what Attention Economy is all about. (Attention economy is an approach to managing information and resources taking into account the 'scarce commodity' - attention)

From what I see though, I think we are gradually shutting ourselves out from too much information by well….diving right into too much information.

When bored at work or otherwise when we get time, we : Read a book - paperback or kindle, forward and read e-mails, text and read jokes on the phone, blog, watch television, watch movies on DVD, tune into an IPod, Log on to Facebook – to share and soak up some useful and mostly useless information..... Log on to twitter – share and soak up some useful and mostly useless information in shorter bursts.

I am guilty of this as well, too much information - disseminating it as well as consuming it. Unsurprisingly ofcourse most of this information is trivial and not life altering, forwards which could be about how someone created amazing art using old disposable razors or videos on Facebook that you just have to watch coz they are an amazing way to look at life, or because it’s just too hilarious for words to miss it.

No wonder Gmail now has a priority inbox, we soon will need to prioritise the way we consume information or it might soon consume us.