Get curious, find purpose, and become more resilient at work Information overload is causing a credibility crisis. Paradoxically, reliable information has never been easier to access, but harder to find. With everyone from qualified experts to politicians, celebrities, and influencers entering their opinions into the chat, separating good information from bad feels like finding a needle in a haystack.
So in a world where social media has “democratized” information and opinion-sharing, who should we trust, and why? And what’s actually impacting our decision-making? As a reformed social media addict and qualified marketing and business psychology professional, I know this challenge from the inside and out.
I’ve spent 15 years of my career manufacturing influence to sell products and services to people on the internet, while simultaneously succumbing to the influence of the same types of campaigns I’ve designed. The internet has become a hotbed for the monetization of almost anything, and as media literacy is in decline — likely not as a result of laziness, but rather overwhelm — it’s never been easier to convert this overwhelm into sales. But there’s more to it than just the volume and velocity of information alone.
Research shows most adults spend upward of two hours per day on their mobile device — and this doesn’t include additional time spent online at work or via computers. While on your mobile device, you’re likely viewing social media content, which means you could be watching anywhere between dozens and hundreds of short-form pieces of information every day. When combined with other online habits — like checking the news and reading email newsletters — you’re likely spending a good four hours or more a day taking in information.
Contrast this with just two decades ago, when news and information were delivered in finite, periodic batches, like the 30-minute evening news or an article in the daily newspaper; your brain is now processing more in a 10-minute doomscroll than you would have in an entire week. Whether you realize it or not, that’s overwhelming. When your brain becomes overwhelmed — called cognitive overload — it enters a protection mode and does one of two things: It attempts to manage this stress by shutting down to certain topics because they feel too complex to deal with, or becomes passive, going along with a popular view or opinion because it’s easier than thinking for yourself.
By design, social media relies on this because as you reach cognitive overload, you begin outsourcing your agency and decision-making to others as your capacity to think and decide for yourself declines. As a result, our susceptibility to fake news, misinformation, and consumeristic sales pitches increases. The volume and velocity of information is just the starting point — our overwhelm creates the perfect conditions for us to trust bad sources, but what do these bad information sources look like, and why are we turning to them?
Extract — continue reading at the source.
