Life
Put out more flags
by Bill Ralston
Sooner or later the brain has to move some of its data to "Trash".
Scientists are warning the digital age means we all face information overload: we are becoming desensitised, lacking in empathy, unable to tell the difference between trivia and important fact; the more we know the less we care.
It must be true. It was in the Times. Frankly, I can vouch for that from my own experience. Pick up a paper or magazine, turn on the telly or radio, start clicking on your keyboard and you are deluged with a tsunami of news and gossip. Pretty soon it becomes impossible to prioritise what is important and what is not. Harder still, to keep it all clear in your head.
Within 10 minutes of getting up this morning, I discovered hundreds are dead in an air crash, Susan Boyle is exhausted, Brad and Angelina are not speaking, swine flu is spreading across the globe, my mate Steve twitters he is on a bus, I get a government email saying “Tim Groser welcomes success in New Zealand-Malaysia trade talks”, and from up the road my beloved texts that tonight we are having lamb racks.
Ok, I know the lamb racks rank pretty highly, certainly ahead of the trade minister’s warm and fuzzy feelings, and I am not yet desensitised to the point where I don’t feel a pang of horror for those on the plane, but after that it all gets a bit murky. Steve’s on a bus with Angelina Jolie who has swine flu and, oh, I’ve forgotten the rest.
For a long while I have fretted my failing memory and fuzzy logic was the result of a lifetime of over-indulgence or the early onset of, what do you call it? Oh, yes, Alzheimer’s. But now I know it is not.
As a kid I would snicker as my mother tried to catch my attention, desperately running through the Christian names of everyone in the family, including the dog and the cat, before eventually coming up with my own. She was suffering a pre-digital-era version of information overload, juggling Aunt Daisy’s scone recipe with the knowledge that the chooks had to be fed, the floors vacuumed, the shopping done, the tap fixed and, oh that’s right, that swine of a child chastised for committing another domestic atrocity.
Even in those far off quieter days people struggled to absorb and classify all the incoming data. Today, bombarded by a barrage of blathering, it is impossible to cope.
I think the human brain is like a computer hard drive. It can absorb a huge load of information, but sooner or later it has to move things to “Trash” to make room for other stuff. If that’s the case, I need more Ram. The brain takes data you have not used for ages and deletes it, but the trouble comes when your brain moves the really important stuff to “Trash”. For example, I have long forgotten the nine times table in arithmetic. Not a problem – I have a calculator in my phone. What if it starts removing really important stuff, like the knowledge that you really should change your underwear daily?
You still remember vital material, such as the name of the Prime Minister, your address, who Britney Spears is and Gok’s valuable advice on how to dress well cheaply. You’ve just forgotten the bit about your undies and slowly sink into a horrible stinky existence.
This explains things like the guy I saw in a cafe yesterday. He had the most enormous amount of hair growing out of his ears. He could have plaited it. Surely there must have been a time when he looked in the mirror, noticed the growth, grabbed the scissors and trimmed it? Then one day he woke up and went to shave, but the snipping information had been sent to trash and an awful sprouting started.
Will people tell me if I fail to recall some basic tenet of civilised life, such as never grow a ponytail? I see men my age everywhere sporting long lank tails of greying split-ended hair. Obviously, no one’s told them about it, and the poor sods are too busy worrying about Lindsay Lohan’s anorexia or what they saw on their Facebook page to go to the hairdresser.
The overload occurs because our brains are losing the ability to determine what is important and what is not. A glance at a television news bulletin will confirm this in the selection of news. “Tonight, the recession deepens, mobile phones to be banned in cars, Rihanna appears in the Chris Brown trial, the US moves to nuclear alert Def Con Three after Korean missile test.” What?
Who the hell is Rihanna anyway? My brain is being told she ranks slightly above Armageddon. No wonder we are confused.
I would worry more, but I must go and check my earholes. You can’t be too careful.
