Do You Suffer From IOS?

For this post I decided to look on Youtube for videos dealing with my inquiry area. This video above was the first one that came up when  i searched for "information overload" This video is quite humerus and I strongly suggest watching it before reading on in my blog.

This commercial pokes fun at business people storing too much information in their head. It highlights all the side effects of taking too much information in. I could not help but laugh when the video was taking about too much information effecting being able to control the man's muscles. 

Yes the video is very funny and maybe a bit extreme in expressing the side effects of storing too much information; however, there is some truth to the video. Of course, you may not see someone texting in the refrigerator or drinking coffee from the coffee machine itself, but we do see people being anti social and reacting different in situations. 

Having too much information in your head can cause you to stress and being acting in weird ways. You may become obsessed with knowing the best and the most information. Especially now a days when employees are pushed by their bosses to be "on top of their game". A lot of times this is translated into knowing everything one can about their competitors and making sure their company knows more and therefore is better. 

I hope we never get to the point of doing the actions portrayed in the video; however, it would not surprise me at all if in the near future we did begin to see the side effects of people who have been overloaded with information their whole life. People really need to stop and look at how much they are trying to retain and how much of it is actually important.

Too Much "Stuff" is Sent

I found an article written by Nicolas called "'Limiting Sending Rights' as Solution to Information Overload," where the writer is arguing that maybe it is the "sender" that is causing us to be overloaded with information. The writer goes on to talk about how there should be new methods put in place to limit amounts of information that can be sent to subscribers and so forth. 
The writer states that "once the connection between sender and receiver is established (e.g. subscription to a newsletter) the sender can send us as much information as he or she wants." He backs of this statement by saying that once the subscriber is in "connection" with the writer, the subscriber has no control over how much or what information is sent to him or her. The warrant is that every time someone subscribes to something, they will be bombarded with useless information and eventually unsubscribe out of annoyance.  
I think that sometimes this can be true and sometime it can be false. Many of times I have subscribed to a new letter or website and have only gotten useful information. For example, I belong to a nutrition group and get paper or things happening dietary in our world. This group only sends me things that are relevant to my area of study which is didactics and help me be aware of current problems. However, I have subscribed to things that eventually I unsubscribe to just do to the fact of the information overload 
occurrence as discussed above.
The paper goes on to discuss numerous ways that this overload of information merely from the sender could be filtered or stopped as a whole. There is definitely more than just the sender to blame though for this overflow of information. We as americans need to really stop and think about what information we are reading and subscribing to on a daily basis.  

The Internet is my T.A.

Alot of people bash the internet for the false information it can portray and the provocative pictures it can contain. However, I have come to use the internet as my virtual T.A. (teaching assistant). Let me start out by saying, this does not mean that I use the internet to learn all my college courses because clearly that would be foolish. I do however use it almost daily to help clear up some confusion from a lecture or homework assignment.
My biggest example is when dealing with anatomy. As you probably already know, along with the lecture portion of anatomy and the lab, a lot of memorization is required. The parts of the body having to be learned are too hard to draw on an index card; therefore, the method of notecard studying would not be applicable. Thanks to modern technology, the Internet is filled with numerous options of studying aids.
I use an anatomy game that has an endless variety of learning styles to help you in memorization particularly. I find it really cool to be able to access all of these learning aids right from your computer. Not only do we have access to them, but there are so many we can choose which one best suits are learning style.
I do get where people are coming from when they say the Internet is full of false information; however, it can also be used for positive things. I honestly do not know what i would do without the "virtual T.A." the Internet gives me. It amazes me how much one progress in knowledge and understand just by a few words being typed into the search bar.

Enough is Enough

Do you find yourself checking eight different "accounts" when getting onto your personal PC or mobile phone? As first you might think eight is a lot; but if you really sit back and evaluate all the technology your involved in, it really isn't. I am ashamed to admit all my current technology related "memberships": Facebook, Twitter, "howdy" Email, a fitness logger, Blogger, Glogster, Yahoo Email and Chase banking. Right there in about thirty seconds I easily came up with eight and I am sure there are a few I am missing. I wish I could say I was the only one like this; however, this seems to be the current theme. This is especially true when looking at Digital Natives. 
The two blogs I discuss their own and others active involvement in technology, particularly social media. In Danah's blog , her main point is how annoying and overwhelming all of the social networks and communication tools online can be. She even goes to say that, "For me, it’s too much. Too much I tell you." Having to check a million applications and sites when you open up your laptop is too overwhelming, no one needs to talk to you that much. Sarah had the same opinion while looking at purchasing a smart phone, "Would I just be a little too connected? Do I really need my email to follow me around on the bus?" Sarah decided against her purchase due to all of the continual "checking" of different applications that would then ensue.

Both Danah and Sarah use ethos to convey they are frustrated and overwhelmed with all of the recent and continuing technological advances. Danah decided that she was going to help fix this problem by only replying back to emails she got. She would still be a member of all the other social connections but would no respond to any of the messages. Sarah seems to agree with Danah in a way seen through her actions of not buying a smart phone. Both girls definitely agree that information overload is getting on their last nerve. It was easy for me to see their clear emotions and feelings toward communication through recent technology and online programming.
I definitely agree with both of the girls, but when is enough enough? It is hard to sit back and just watch everyone engage in all the internet has to offer. Facebook is a great way of keeping up or finding people that you would not be able to stay in touch with otherwise. But at the same time, if Facebook is the only thing keeping you in touch then maybe the relationship is not that important to begin with.
I really like Danah strategy of only answering to one messaging program; however, especially for college students this is not practical. Even campus organizations and the universities themselves use social media as a way to inform members or students on upcoming events or traumatic events that may have occurred.
Danah and Sarah both did a great job displaying their feelings about information overload and how they will strive to cope with it all. However, I do not think it is always really up to the individual how much they choose to be involved. It is sometimes required, for example "howdy", to be checking the internet multiple times a day.
When talking about digital natives, as I am one myself, it is hard to imagine a world without all of this social media. It is what we have always know and seen daily. Does is really cause any of us in our late teens, early twenties to have anxiety? 

Wikipedia - the Answer to Everything

For most of us all we do is continually hear from our teachers starting in the first grade is, "Do not use Wikipedia as a source or to answer your questions, it is all false information." If Wikipedia is all false, then why do so many people continue to refer to its articles and add information to its' pages? 

I personally think Wikipedia is good in confirming or maybe clearing up information that you have already learned; however, it is definitely not something you should go to as your first source of knowledge. From my experience I have seen that Wikipedia is reliable the majority of the time, but i would never go to it to learn about a subject that was foreign to me. 

http://www.davidglarson.com/teamwork/what-caused-wikipedias-decline/

The picture above is obviously poking fun at Wikipedia. They are showing that it is so easy to edit in and delete information that even your cat could do it. It is true that anyone can go into an article and change and add different things; however, I do not think that people intentionally add false information or take out true information. 

It is always a good thing to really look at the "information quality" of any site you look up on the internet. As most of us know you do not have to be a genius to make a website and claim your information as credible. Growing up in this Digital error, we have definitely grown in our skills for distinguishing between false and credible information. 

I think that we need to be more aware of figuring out what information we should turn to the internet to find and when we should look to other more credible sources. We have so many other things such as peer-reviewed journals, encyclopedias and dictionaries to aid us in finding out new information or clarifying old information. I would agree that Wikipedia has its faults, but then again what on the internet does not these days?