Many regard information overload as being one of the major issues of today’s digital age. With our computers, phones and tablets, all of which are now permanently connected to the Internet thanks to 3G and wi-fi, we are literally flooded with information every single moment. I’m not just talking about information in terms of books, articles and research, but also stuff like social media feeds, instant messages, e-mails, any and all pieces of writing which contain information. It’s easy to say “well, if you don’t like it just unplug”, but many of us are using Internet and communications for our jobs, or to keep up with friends, so dealing with information overload may become an issue… Or so a lot of people are trying to make us believe. People such as tech entrepreneur Rohan Silva, whose name shares a surprising similarity to that of Bond villain Raoul Silva. I’m just saying!
In a feature published by “The Guardian”, Silva explains that he has created his own library in London that he has named Libreria, which sounds a lot like the country of the Marvel villain Doctor Doom, Latveria. I’m just saying! Now, Libreria is pretty much exactly the same as any other library, except for one small detail – phones and tablets are completely banned within its walls. To paraphrase the interview, Silva states precisely concerns about information overload when explaining his “no smart-technology” rule. According to him, human beings need a space to relax without being constantly bombarded by information, and that space might as well be a quiet library. I have a few problems with that statement, however. First of all, a library is, by definition, a place full of information! While right now I’m carrying a library with me all the time thanks to my tablet, only twenty years ago that’s where people went when they needed information! If you were really worried about information overload, why not make something that doesn’t contain a lot of information, like a quiet, nice café or something?
My second problem with this is that I don’t really believe that information overload is a problem for most people. I know for a fact that those with autism have it. One of my best friends has Asperger’s, and she sometimes feels overloaded and has to go somewhere quieter, or else she’ll go into full-out meltdown mode. That’s understandable. But come on – have you, the person reading this, ever felt overloaded with information? And if so, why didn’t you just, I don’t know, turn off your phone and go out? Yeah, sure, I mentioned earlier that many of us use those for work, but if you feel so overloaded, why not limit the amount of information you get? Turn off your notifications! Limit yourself to 20 minutes of Facebook a day! Try to fight the compulsion to constantly check your e-mail or instant messages (I know that one’s hard, especially when expecting someone important to write, but hang in there). If you can’t do that, then you really only have yourself to blame.
I want you to visualize a roulette table in your mind. No, seriously, go ahead and do it. Close your eyes if you have to, take a moment. It doesn’t have to be super detailed, but I’d like you to imagine it as closely as you can. You good? Okay, take a look at the top of the table and let me know what are the three colours you see. Did you spot them? For the more creatively challenged of you (hey, no worries, none of us are perfect), they’re red, black and green. Have you ever wondered why those colours in particular? After all, aren’t opposite colours on the spectrum, such as black and white or red and blue be more logical? Why did the people who invented roulette pick those particular colours, and if they didn’t, who did, and for what reason?