A letter to the editor of the New Yorker a couple of weeks ago said the writer was 87 years old and lived in a small town in Nova Scotia. Note: not in the US. Still, he mentioned his iPad, his Kindle, his general capability of perusing the world from where he was. A friend recently wrote that in his small town, population 155, he was "subjected" to a wash of information daily.
I just read in the last few days that about half of Earth's 7.5 billion humans use the internet, at least somewhat. I imagine we can count on the other half being at least somewhat interested. I just read an hour ago about a rich African man stating at an African college graduation that it is time for Africa to have its own Harvard, MIT and Stanford. African and Asian and Latin American brains and efforts will continue to rise and that will increase the flow of communication and information around the world and into my house.
I suspect that information overload is related to the problem the Buddha pointed to centuries ago: our wants and desires. Say I click on Cheerio Road, a blog written by the clever and helpful Karen Maezen Miller. Say what I read does indeed help me enjoy my life more and stress futilely less. Say the next day 1000 other very attractive links appear in my stuff. I realize I am not going to get to Miller's blog. I realize I might just as well not try to save it or a link to it or make a note about it since I have already saved 892 other pieces I think will be good. I have saved twice that many links. I have saved many notes, too, but I am tiring of saving, storing, getting back to and getting around to. Saying good-bye to a possibility that might be the answer to my life's questions is painful.
I want that article. I want all the articles I have reason to believe would be good and I want the better half of the articles I don't know about yet. No wonder I am starting to sag. I am facing tremendous losses and they are set to increase. Woe! Misery! Pain!
